Batch Time adjustment

[tstoddard]

Andy,

If I recall correctly, I was never able to get the "reset" functionality to work consistently but I didn't try for long. When I rename files, I only have two concerns. One, the names need to be unique, and two, I want to be able to sort by filename and end up with files in order of date taken. I have found that using a sequentially numbering system is not necessarily the best way to do that. If your images are coming from multiple sources it gets even trickier.

You need to consider whether the number after the date is really necessary and if so, does it have to be a contiguous range starting from 000. If not, just don't use the reset. The other problem is, are you renaming every file from each date in the same session? If you rename some today and then receive some more images taken on the same date tomorrow and go to rename them, you'll have a challenge. You'll need to manually determine what number to start on. This would destroy any efficiencies you are trying to achieve. Depending on how many unique dates you have, it might be easiest to just create a separate subfolder for each unique date and then run your renaming template on one folder at a time.

Basically, what I'm suggesting is that you use an import profile that creates a folder structure that puts files from separate dates into separate folders. This is a common practice and you should have trouble setting up PSU to do that. Once you have all of your files imported into that folder structure, you can then do your renaming one folder at a time. This should give you the results you want. If you want to move the files back into a different folder structure afterwards, you could do that too.

I hope this helps. Renaming can get very complicated. There is software dedicated to nothing else but renaming. (PFrank is an example of a free program that does nothing but renaming). I've found that it's best not to let that happen. If there's a simple solution, go for it.

[andy@damroundup.com]

Thx again Tom - I guess I"m just not sure what the program is actually doing here because all the images I'm working on are in a single folder and all the Exif dates are correctly established. I have 600 images in a folder all with dates from a year (2004-01-01 through 2004-12-31). I'm not adding any additional images to this folder so I thought the program would be able to handle this... I think what is happening is the program is building the rename incorrectly because of some issue with how the files are in memory or encountered on the disk. I'm going to file a Mantis for this as it appears to be a bug.

I agree that this may be overkill - but this is what the client has requested... so, off I go on my kludge trip through 3 different software packages! I'm through half of the 60,000 images already so its not too bad.. here is the process for anyone interested!

1 - Use XYPlorer to create a folder by year on my client drive and load images from DVD onto here.
2 - Use XNView to update all the exif original dates (and a few other dates) to match the date listed in the filename (the client included the date in the filename).
3 - Import the folder into Idimager and use a batch to save the filename to the Headline field (preserver the original filename just in case I need to reference it or the date again).
4 - Rename the files in Idimager using the exif original date and the append counter by date (this is where the trouble comes in)
5 - Because the files are not renamed in order - I then need to use XYPlorers Rename Edit and Textpad to pull in the list of filenames, remove the (00x) values for all dates, and manually renumber the files for each date to add the correct counter back on... I have tried using renames in XNView but it just provides a sequential number for all files - not by date. I've also checked out of the other rename programs out there but have not found one that can do it by date like Idimager can (kudos hert for a cool function...)...

So - if I can just get Idimager's Reset=date to work correctly and only add the whole number counter and not the subcounters, I'll save Step 5 and a huge amount of effort..

Anyway.. thx for listening... it is one heck of a project!

[tstoddard]

I agree that this may be overkill - but this is what the client has requested... so, off I go on my kludge trip through 3 different software packages! I'm through half of the 60,000 images already so its not too bad.. here is the process for anyone interested!

Andy,

You are correct about fixing the "reset by date" functionality, it would certainly solve your issues. By the time you get that fixed, if you ever do, you could probably have your renaming done by just doing it one day at a time. In other words, sort you files by date, manually select all file for each date, batch rename them and then move on to the next day. It might be a little tedious but it shouldn't be as bad as renaming files manually or updating dates individually. I know you have 60,000 files to work with but how many unique dates do you have?

If you have so many unique dates that doing this would take too long than you might need to use some other method. I mentioned a program called PFrank (Peter's Flexible Renaming Kit) in an earlier post. According to its manual, it allows you to reset the counters for each new folder. As part of the renaming process in PFrank, you can create folder structures. This leads me to believe that you could do everything in one step. After your done, you can then import all files into IDImager and recreate the folder structure you want during that import process. It should be pretty simple and efficient.

Good Luck!