Consolidating and rename mac screen grabs

[bedtimeforbonzo]

Hi all.
I need advice please.

For a few years now I have been taking screen grabs on my mac, and I want to put them into one folder, preferably by capture date. Problem is, there are many multiple files of the same name (e.g. picture1.png).
Now I have literally hundreds, in many folders all over various folders/hard drives.
I want to put them all in the same folder, then I could batch rename, but obviously I get the old 'cannot transfer, this filename already exists'.
I have lightroom, and bridge, but have never used either before....
to manually rename will take forever - any easy solutions available?

 

[FourCandles]

If you've got Adobe Bridge, you can do a batch rename using the enclosing folder name as part of the filename, plus a sequence. Does that help?

 

[bedtimeforbonzo]

Hi Fourcandles - well, I am unfamiliar with Bridge at present, but sounds like then I would still have to mucjk about with multiple folders - I would like to have them all in sequence (.1,.2,.3 etc) but ideally still in capture date order...?

Got any Plugs?

 

[FourCandles]

I'd suggest you try this:

Firstly:
Use Bridge to set up Smart Collections, based on your highest folder(s) in the directory tree that contain all of the folders with screen grabs (and tell Bridge to include sub-folders). As criteria, use whatever will identify the image files e.g. height and width, etc. - there are many options within Bridge. Be wary of using file name as an identifier because that will change in the next step and you'll need to re-find them for the final step.

NB - as you've got folders spread over several drives, you'll probably need to set up a Smart Collection for each drive. Be aware that indexing and previewing thousands of images over network drives can take a while, but you can leave Bridge to it.

Next step:
You'll then have a single window in Bridge with all of your screen grabs. To bulk rename, you could try a combination of capture date, sequence and enclosing folder, which will then give you your unique file naming.

Finally:
Again using Bridge, drag all of the images from the Smart Collection window to your new destination. NB - if you couldn't avoid using file names to set up the initial Smart Collections, you may need to edit the criteria before doing this to find the files again...

Difficult to be more precise without knowing your exact configuration, but this approach has worked for me. Hope this helps.

 

[mlblacy]

Can't change the past, but I can fix your future...

Check out Skitch from Plasq. I used to use SnapZpro for screen grabs, and it worked ok, albeit at a pretty costly price for screenshots (it records video too which was nice). Skitch on the other hand pretty much only does one thing, screenshots, but it does them so well it blows the doors off everything else. Take a screenshot with skitch and you can instantly name it, and also make annotations to it with arrows, text, boxes, lines, highlighting, etc. Need more room to write in your notes? Simply stretch the canvas in any direction. Need to see a screenshot you took last year on a certain date, and you can click the history tab... The interface flips over and you get a scrolling visual view of all your screenshots sorted by date. Oh, also the history is searchable. Priceless. Instantly email any screenshot by selecting "email" from the drop down menu, or simply drag drop from the main screen into an email. Want to share it online? Hit "share" and it sends to your own online storage space, and then gives you multiple options on where/how to share it (like embed, generate small preview for forum postings, etc). I use it every day and it is in my top ten desert island apps.

Did I mention the cost? Free. Priceless.
Cheers,
Michael

PS: in Skitch you can rename your screenshots at anytime, and you can also pull out your screenshots from your history at any time. Check it out at skitch.com. I am not affiliated with Plasq, but they have just about a perfect product...

 

[maflynn]

I use littlesnapper which holds the screen shots, annotate, edit and upload to a site of your definition.