Bridge 07: Rename series: Saving your Presets

Preset comes in handy when you have to use one set of name format for all your digital photographs to keep more organized file structure. So instead of adding and removing the filename you can simple save as preset to speed up the action. You can save any name format as preset like Adding date and time or when you use String substitutes like Replace Spaces with Underscores .

In order to start fresh file name structure, you have remove the existing formats first. So why not create a preset for that.

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01. Select the images and go to Tools > Batch Rename...

(fig 1.0)

02. I'll create a simple preset and call it 'Reset.' This will remove the existing file name formats and we will use this as a starting point.

In order to do that, first remove everything under the New Filename and select the first dropdown to 'Text.' Leave the second text box empty. If you have created multiple dropdowns, remove everything.

(fig 2.0)

03. We will save this by using the Save... button under the Preset section. Name it Reset and press Ok.

(fig 3.0)

04. Now your current Preset will display the newly saved preset.

(fig 3.1)

05. You can see all your saved Presets in the dropdown. You can delete the presets you have created by simply selecting the preset and press the Delete... button next to the Save... button.

You cannot delete the Presets that came with Bridge - Last Used, Default, String Substitution.

(fig 3.2)

06. Next time when you come across a file format with multiple dropdowns like this and instead of removing one my one.

...

(fig 4.0)

07. Select the Reset Preset which we created now.
Now you can start adding new file structure from scratch notice the Filename dropdown and the preview.

(fig 5.0)

Bridge 06: Rename series: Replace spaces with underscores

Lets look at how to remove spaces between the words and replace with punctuation marks. For this tutorial i'll use Underscore ( _ ).

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01. Open the folder in Bridge and select all the files to rename.

(fig 1.0)

02. Open the Batch Rename window and clear all the existing filename under the New Filenames section. So we can start from fresh.

If you have done some previous Batch Rename then the last action will be displayed here.

(fig 2.0)

03. Select the String Substitution from the first dropdown. By default the second dropdown is set to Original Filename, if not you can change it.

Keep an eye on the Preview section.

(fig 3.0)

04. Enter [:blank:] in the Find text box. After you entered, check the Use Regular Expression .

Notice the Preview, all the blank spaces are gone.

(fig 3.1)

05. In the Replace with text box, add _ (underscore). This will replace all the spaces with underscore, see the preview below.

(fig 3.2)

06. To verify how the rename looks on other file names, Select the Preview button from the top right.

(fig 4.0)

07. Click OK to exit the Preview window and Select the Rename button to rename all the files.

(fig 5.0)

Bridge 04: Adding Date and Time

Last week we saw how to add dimensions to the filename using metadata information. This week we will see how to add Date and Time. Time is not as important as the Date as a filename, so we will use the Date for the filename.

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01. The Metadata information contain two dates, the one created and the one modified.
If you did not modify, then it will show you the same date on both places.

(fig 1.0)

02. Open the Batch Rename window in Bridge, you won't have this 'Reset' preset, thats ok, you can still continue with the tutorial.

(fig 2.0)

03. Before we begin lets write down how the file name should look. Everybody have their own way of writing the date, i'll like to keep the date in the format of Year, Month and Date, because that is how i write.

I am not going to include the time in the file name, because there'll be too many characters, but i'll show you how you can add them.

(fig 3.0)

04. To keep the original filename, select the first field to Preserved Filename.

(fig 4.0)

05. Create a New dropdown and set it to Date Time, since Date Created is the first option in the sub-category dropdown, leave it as it is. Check the Preview below.

(fig 5.0)

06. Use the sub-category to select other options if you want. Say if you want Date Modified or today's date as a filename and you can use any of the different date formats from the second sub-category dropdown.
You won't have much option for Time, but you can use it if you want.

(fig 5.1)

07. We want the date format to be Year, Month and Date. So i'll set the second sub-category to YYYYMMDD.

(fig 5.2)

08. Here's the filename with the date format included.
Messy huh..? Let's clean this.

(fig 6.0)

09. Create more dropdown and separate the Year, Month and Date with the underscore and hyphens. After you created this and you want to set the Date Created to Date Modified, make sure to change on other dropdowns as well.

(fig 7.0)

10. Click Preview on the top right to see the changes on all the files.

(fig 8.0)

Bridge 03: Adding Dimensions to the filename

We will look at how to add the Width and Height to the existing filename. We are going to keep the original file name and include Width and height options.

These dimensions are dynamic, the width and the height will varies for different images and Bridge will automatically take care of that.

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01. I am using these five images. To see the dimensions better, i have reduced the dimensions and made some random sizes.

(fig 1.0)

02. I will open the folder location in the Bridge and select all the files and open the Batch Rename window. Default or previously used preset will be shown. I've made a Reset Preset to start fresh (notice the New filename (at the bottom))

(fig 2.0)

03. Before renaming any file, it is a good practice to write down how exactly it should appear. Because there is no UNDO for renaming the file, and instead of wasting the time doing multiple renaming, it is better to write it down first.

The only addition is Width and Height will be added to the existing file name. So we are not renaming the existing file name, because it is already in a sequence, we just adding the dimensions after that.

(fig 3.0)

04. To keep the original file name, select the Preserved Filename from the dropdown and leave the sub-category dropdowns to default. You can see the Preview of the New filename at the bottom.

(fig 4.0)

05. To add another dropdown press the '+' button and by default it will be a Text category. Add the underscore in the sub-category box.

(fig 4.1)

06. The Dimension comes under the camera information, so you will not see them inside main category. Select the Metadata from the first field and in the secondary dropdown you can see the Width and Height.

(fig 4.2)

07. You cannot Add the dimensions as a whole. Use the Add option and create multiple Filenames. Click the Preview button on the right to see how all the file names reflect on the output.

(fig 4.3)

08. Click OK to close the Preview window and Press Rename to apply.

(fig 5.0)

Bridge 02: Rename your files inside Bridge

Not many people know Adobe Bridge has an option to rename your files with ease. Remember you cannot UNDO this action. Once you rename the files you cannot go back, so before you rename you can take a copy of the files in an another folder or you can take advantages of the Destination Folder option inside the Rename window.

This is a simple method, meaning we are not omitting any particular word or adding any word before and after to the existing file name. I will make a separate tutorial for those.

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01. Open the folder which you want to rename in Adobe Bridge and select all the files.

(fig 1.0)

02. Go to Tools menu and select Batch Rename... or press Ctrl + Shift + R. Make sure you select any file, else this will be disabled.

(fig 2.0)

03. The two things you should focus is the New Filenames and the Preview at the bottom.

(fig 3.0)

04. Just to keep things simple and to the point i am keeping my Presets to Default and Changing the New Filenames to 'Image_01.' Use the dropbox and the minus and plus buttons to add or remove items. As you change you can see it immediately how the first file looks at the bottom which says Preview.

If you want to preview all the files, click the Preview button on the right.

(fig 3.1)

05. There is a separate window opens for preview and you can see how the output naming looks for all the files. Click the OK button to close this window. The OK button is to close the preview and does not change anything.

(fig 4.0)

06. Click the Rename button above the Cancel to rename all the files.

(fig 5.0)

Photoshop Study Notes: Index