Name Mangler: batch rename your files

Readers may also be interested in NameChanger, a free file renamer.
http://web.mac.com/mickeyroberson/MRR_Software/NameChanger.html

The power of not only a regex but an actual grammar for writing renaming "programs" in Name Mangler / File List make them amazingly useful. Using the regex tools and the advanced renaming where I can apply my own series, capitalization rules, etc., I can rename pretty much any group of files with a given pattern of names in just one step: More than I can say for any other tool I've ever tried -- even command-line utilities like sed. I consider Name Mangler essential software. I just wish that "go" button was in a different location. :-/

The main thing I need file renaming for is to preserve screenshots of an online game I play. I use my PC for gaming and my Mac for everything else, so getting the images where I want them can be a pain, especially since the game reuses file names, so every time I import I wind up with a bunch of files called SS01, SS02, etc.

I recently wrote an automator action that connects to the PC over my network, retrieves all the screenshot files from the game directory, imports them to a folder on my Mac, and renames them with a date and time stamp so there will never be duplicate names. It's the first useful thing I've wanted to do with automator that I've actually gotten to work properly, without needing to know Applescript. I will put Name Mangler in my utilities folder for other one-off renaming tasks, but I also second Automator for anyone who needs to do regular renaming.

What's wrong with AppleScript?

When I click on that little applescript logo on the menu bar, I get all these handy pre-written scripts.

In the Finder Scripts folder, there are a dozen or so scripts to rename files, add to file names, replace text in file names...

If I wanted to add _tb to the end of every filename, I'd select the folder that the files are in, choose the "add to file names" script from the menu, then select "Suffix" or "Prefix" depending on which end of the name I want it on. Done.

If I want to then remove _tb, I'd select the same folder, choose "Replace text in file names." The text I want to replace is "_tb" and the text I want to replace it with is "" (nothing).
Done.

Not sure where these scripts came from, but I've been using them since Panther. I always figured they were installed with either Panther or Jaguar. No matter, I still use them all the time.

I'm not going to go download an app for this.

Does automator support regex? As far as I've seen it doesn't, and it doesn't show what the name will look like after you're done as you're modifying the expression, which is really handy.

A better finder renamer is nice but it's also pretty expensive for a renaming tool, I'd rather just have a lower powered piece of freeware for my purposes.

I just use automator...don't even save the action since it takes about 2 seconds to put it together.

I second Saxon's suggestion to use Automator. Just create a workflow and save as a Finder plug-in. Works great.

I use R-Name, have for years.
It doesn't have droplet capability,
which is cool, but it runs fine in Tiger 10.4.11,
and is quite speedy. And is donationware too.

I just use automator. Heck, why open up a program every time to add _tb to a file when you can save an automator action that does it in two clicks?

Renamer4Mac is also great for renaming files. Not sure if it's
updated for Leapord.