Lost Boy and I got to be the Official Photographers at my bro- and sis-in law's wedding a little while ago. We took HUNDREDS of pictures. I wouldn't be surprised if we took 1000 pictures. Have you ever tried to sort through that many pictures and decide which ones to post, which ones you like best, which ones to print, and which ones to send to family members? It can be overwhelming.
We've been trying to sort them into some semblance of manageable order, but what we were ending up with were folders within folders containing files with a mixture of useless names like "IMG_348" and "camera2_495." Dividing the pictures into folders labeled "vows," "guests at wedding," "guests at reception," and "cake cutting" helped combine similar pictures into easy-to-find places, but the random file names were bugging me. So was the fact that once we combined images from three different flash cards the numbering system on the files wasn't helpful anymore.
I did a Google search on "how to change multiple files names at once" and discovered that there is a way to rename lots of files in Windows XP all at once. But there are some limitations. I dug a little further and found something wonderful!
Alex Fauland's easy-to-use file renaming program.
I installed it and opened the program side by side with the folder all the wedding pictures are in (right-click on the taskbar and select 'Tile Windows Vertically). I looked at the pictures in thumbnail format so I could see what was in them and then I just dragged and dropped the pictures I wanted to rename into the A.F.5 program window. Then I renamed them useful things like "Bride's Feet in the Grass_01" through "Bride's Feet in the Grass_14", or "Rings_01" through "Rings_11." So now, instead of having three to five folders in the Feet, Shoes, and Rings folder we just have about 50 images, clearly labeled. Sorting by name now puts all the similar ones together.
Less clicking, more finding.
Wonderful.
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