Hi! I am coming from a PC and am stumbling my way through iPhoto and iMovie. When I imported photos to my PC, I could name them, e.g., "October 2006" and they would then show up as "October 2006 001", "October 2006 002", etc. When I imported the first batch of photos to our iMac, I put "October 2006" as the roll name and description, since I didn't know what would happen. The photos showed up as "IMG_2519.JPG", "IMG_2520.JPG", etc. I am not seeing "October 2006" anywhere. Is there a way to import using the name I want? Sorry for the simple question, but I am really a beginner here. Thanks!
New to iPhoto - Need some assistance
- Thread starter hoobitty
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The name you chose when importing is the name iPhoto saves in its database for the roll of film as a whole (and I suggest changing the setting so that iPhoto displays the roll names in the list through the View menu -> check Film Rolls), it doesn't change the file names at all as far as I know.
If you need them to have other names that what the camera gives them, I would suggest using a program (can't remember any of them now though, sorry) to batch-rename the files prior to importing them to iphoto (or copying the roll to another folder afterwards, naming that folder to whatever you want the roll to be named, batch-rename the files as you wish, deleting the roll and its images in iPhoto [you already have the copies with new names in a new separate folder], then dragging that new folder back to iPhoto to re-import them, lastly remove the folder you created, iPhoto will have copied the images to its library).
It's a tedious process, probably because the iLife suite programs aren't centered on the files themselves, but rather on how they are presented through the program's interface. One reason that Windows renames the files is really that it should be easy to find them manually (there isn't any iPhoto-like program there to keep track of the files), but through iPhoto it's usually easy enough anyway since they're grouped together in rolls.
If you need them to have other names that what the camera gives them, I would suggest using a program (can't remember any of them now though, sorry) to batch-rename the files prior to importing them to iphoto (or copying the roll to another folder afterwards, naming that folder to whatever you want the roll to be named, batch-rename the files as you wish, deleting the roll and its images in iPhoto [you already have the copies with new names in a new separate folder], then dragging that new folder back to iPhoto to re-import them, lastly remove the folder you created, iPhoto will have copied the images to its library).
It's a tedious process, probably because the iLife suite programs aren't centered on the files themselves, but rather on how they are presented through the program's interface. One reason that Windows renames the files is really that it should be easy to find them manually (there isn't any iPhoto-like program there to keep track of the files), but through iPhoto it's usually easy enough anyway since they're grouped together in rolls.
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If you just want to do a quick rename by adding October 2006 to the beginning of each file name, Apple has a quick easy way to do it using an Applescript that came built in. First, go to your "Applications" folder, open the "AppleScript" folder. Launch the "AppleScript Utility.app" and choose "Show Script Menu in menu bar." You should now see a black scroll in your menu bar somewhere to the left of your date and time (exact position will vary depending on whatever else you have there). Now, open the folder containing the photos you want to rename and make that the front-most window. (This is VERY important as the script will act on whatever window is in front, and if there's no open windows it'll make it's changes on your desktop.) Once the folder with the files in it you want to rename is the forward-most window, go to the "Scripts" menu you just added to your menu bar. Go down to "Finder Scripts" and choose "Add to File Names." it will ask you to enter what you want it to add, and if you want it to be a prefix or suffix (to add it to the beginning of each file name, choose prefix). It's that easy... one thing to watch out for when naming is if you want the file names to read something along the lines of "October 2006 IMG3456.jpg" you'll need to type "October 2006 " (as in include the space if you want it to be there, otherwise it'll name the files October 2006 IMG3456.jpg). There's a few other very useful renaming scripts included in the "Scripts" menu under "Finder Scripts" but I'd recommend playing with them with test folders/files to see how they work before running them on your actual files (or have a look at the actual script if you're so inclined).