A Good, Free, File Renamer for the Mac
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Once in a while, you may have a need to rename a few dozen or so files. Be it their file names or file extensions. Either way, if you’re not in need for utility to do this often, paying $20 for A Better Finder Rename (ABFR) is a bit steep, even though it’s probably the best one out there. At one time, FileWranger was the way to go, but as it stands, 1.2.1 is no longer available as the author, Christopher Drum’s, Web site is no longer live (a .Mac account).
Fortunately there are still a couple of other freebees out there and we found Peter Maurer’s File List v1.2 just what we needed. While it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of ABFR, it still does the small task of changing file names just fine.
File List does more than just making renaming files easy and fast. It will also build playlists with a simple drag of music files. Easy export to your favorite music player such as iTunes.
One more excellent feature commonly found on shareware and that’s the addition of droplets. What’s droplets you ask? Well, Maurer describes it as “proxy applications that store a given configuration. They make it ridiculously easy to use File List repeatedly for different, alternating purposes. And they even support drag & drop!” Nice.
So if you have a basic need for renaming some files and don’t want to shell out a ton of cash for it, check out File List. We like it and for what it costs, we couldn’t be any happier with it.
By the way, if you do like the app and find yourself using it often, help Maurer continue development and donate a Euro or two.
[tags]Mac, OS X, OSX, File, Manager, Rename, Freeware, Donateware, filewrangler, A Better Finder Rename, ABFR, File List[/tags]
14 Comments
Steve Dickerson
November 29th, 2006
at 2:01pm
Another great (and free!) file renamer for Mac is Renamer4Mac. Here’s what the author says about himself:
My name is Werner Freytag, I live near Munich (Germany) and I’m “19 years old” (for some years now! ;-).
Phil Scanlan
January 17th, 2007
at 2:21pm
I simply use the Applescripts in the Finder Scripts collection. Pull it right down from the scripts menu. So simple, so effective.
Adam Khan
March 18th, 2007
at 4:14pm
Thanks for this
mpmchugh
April 13th, 2007
at 3:29pm
R-Name is also great alternative. It’s also free, though the developer strongly encourages a donation to UNICEF as payment.
http://www.tulip.sannet.ne.jp/tayo/
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14404
Christopher Drum
July 17th, 2007
at 4:43am
I am the creator of Filewrangler and I just wanted to say that Filewrangler has a new home at:
http://software.christopherdrum.com/filewrangler
There was a short time between when my .Mac account expired and Filewrangler was made available again on my new website. I apologize for that short lapse in availability.
rmmiles
March 30th, 2008
at 3:47pm
call me dumb, but I can only get it to load the directory and not the files to be renamed, and working on the directory nothing happens. Duh. I’ve even read the directions. what gives?
rmmiles
Charlie
May 28th, 2008
at 5:13pm
This is a nice program.
I will also add 2 thumbs up for FileWrangler.
Chris
August 4th, 2008
at 1:52pm
Does anyone know a good file renaming tool that accepts a text file with a list as input? i.e. reads a list of file names and renames the files in order that they appear?
taa
September 12th, 2008
at 8:06pm
1) Sven, you mention “a couple of other freebees out there” with one being File List. What’s the other one?
2) Renamer4Mac is no longer free ($26): http://renamer4mac.com/
tina
December 9th, 2008
at 1:44pm
this is great now that renamer4mac is no longer free. this is a great tool, i’m glad i came across this post.
RJ
March 20th, 2009
at 8:23am
This replaces List v1.2 mentioned above…. Name Mangler is a great tool!
“Fortunately there are still a couple of other freebees out there and we found Peter Maurer’s File List v1.2 just what we needed. While it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of ABFR, it still does the small task of changing file names just fine.”
Klut
April 20th, 2009
at 10:39am
Another good shareware is Renamerox.
It has many functions and features and works very fast.
It has also an undo function which is sometimes very helpful. Renamerox offers presets for each work.
Give it a try:
http://www.renamerox.branox.com
alex
July 21st, 2009
at 2:18am
This tool is even better:
http://manytricks.com/namemangler
Simon
September 27th, 2009
at 4:00am
After testing some apps I got Renamerox.
It has many functions and features and works very fast.
The presets works great.