Haydon

Can anyone suggest a utility that will allow renaming many files in a folder so they are organized according to date and time.

I haven't been able to figure out an easy way in lightroom to add a folder and then have them displayed down below in the thumbnails according to earliest to latest?

Really stuck, hope someone can help. Thanks!

amehta Loc: Boston

I basically do this with a python script, part of which I found online and part which I wrote myself. If you don't get a good answer on doing this in LR, you can try this.

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

With date sensitive material, I batch rename it to the template:

yyyymmdd-title-####.xxx, with

yyyymmdd being the date extracted from the file, title of your own choosing, #### bring a one to four digit sequence number (remember, if you use 2-4 digit numbers, begin with leading zeros, e,g., 01, 003, 0048, etc.); the hyphen separators are optional. The file type xxx is your choice. If your computer is set not to show hidden files, hide those you don't want seen be substituting an underscore (_) as the first character, i.e., _0140527Photo0027.jpg.

ceh1024 Loc: Lutz, FL

*******


http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php

I use it all the time :)

sueyeisert Loc: New Jersey

Lightroom can easily rename your files. In the library module module select the pictures you want to rename. On the right side in the panel where the name of the photo is located to the right of the name there's a little button, click it. Then in the space provided rename your files.

Invest some time and learn the program.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

I don't know about Mac's, but in Windows you don't need an additional program to order your images:
Open Windows Explorer to the folder where your images are, select "details" for the display, right-click anywhere on the headings bar and from the pop-up select Date Taken (or any other criterium). Click OK.
In the headings bar, click on the Date Taken and the images will sort ascending by date, click the header again and they will sort descending.

Unfortunately, I don't know if this sorting will carry through into LR.

Jim Plogger Loc: East Tennessee

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I've used FastImageResizer in the past (it does much more than just resize images).

But now I just use Lightroom (currently LR4).

Import your images.

Highlight them all in the Library module, then select View > Sort > Capture Time. This puts them in exact order they were shot (note, if using more than one camera and wanting the photos from all cameras to end up in exact order shot, be sure to sync the cameras in advance).

Now with all still selected and still in the Library module, select Library > Rename Files and a dialog box will open up. I just use "Custom Settings" and "edit" it to type in the date I want shown, in the format I want it shown (2014_05_28_xxxx) with the "xxxx" being {# sequence (0001)>>}, which generates a number sequence. Save that, then all you have to do is choose a starting number for the sequence and tell LR to rename the images.

There are lots of presets in that dialog box you can use instead, which can automatically generate file names in various ways.

If you make a mistake, it's pretty easy to go back and do another file rename sequence. Sometimes it's necessary to do an intermediate renaming with some added suffix, if any of the file names might duplicate (in which case LR will not rename the file or will add a "-2" to it.)

Haydon

Thank you everyone for your help.