Author Topic: Predefine renaming patterns and invoke them with hotkeys?  (Read 645 times)

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Predefine renaming patterns and invoke them with hotkeys?
« on: July 11, 2023, 04:45:30 AM »
I use Photo Mechanic 6 on macOS to review photos taken at youth sports games. I review maybe 3,500 photos on a Saturday. My process for marking the photos I'm looking for is to put the name of the athlete in the photo into the filename. I press {M} and do this presently:

FirstName JerseyNumber {filenamebase}

Problem is, I find photos of multiple athletes and I want to easily push a single button or a hotkey combination and have my single selected image renamed to add that specific person's name to its filename.

Instead, I have to go to the Rename Photos box and either type or paste in that person's name in the field, and then press {Rename}.

I want to skip all those steps except for pressing a hotkey combination or clicking on a button on a palette. Each button or hotkey would be associated with a different filename pattern, one for each person. These names don't change much so I could predefine them and be done. I'd need a total of about eight of these, but five would still be pretty great.

Is there a way to do this with Photo Mechanic? Thank you for any help!

Offline Mick O (Camera Bits)

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Re: Predefine renaming patterns and invoke them with hotkeys?
« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2023, 09:16:05 AM »
There are many ways to speed up that process in Photo Mechanic, but not in the exact way you describe, unfortunately.  Some folks in your situation use the code replacement feature to insert player names into various fields in Photo Mechanic. Here is some information about that:

Introduction to Code Replacements in Photo Mechanic
https://docs.camerabits.com/support/solutions/articles/48000223660-introduction-to-code-replacements-in-photo-mechanic

Edit to add: Bob just reminded me that if you rename one file with "FirstName JerseyNumber {filenamebase}" then you can repeat that rename process for photos of that same player with Command-Option-m without opening up any other dialog windows.  This will work until you get to photos with a different player.  It may be of some help to you.

Mick
Mick O
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Re: Predefine renaming patterns and invoke them with hotkeys?
« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2023, 03:40:23 PM »
Thank you, Mick.