Name Mangler

I have been looking for something like Name Mangler for a while now, and as typical when you aren’t looking for something you find it. That was the case for me with Name Mangler.

Every now and then I have large numbers of files, that I need to rename to a sequential naming scheme, like 20080521_##.XXX, and I had some clunky scripts that worked, but were always a pain to deal with, so much so that I usually don’t even bother unless I’m dealing with more then 20 or so files. So I was actually looking for secure file deletion tool, and I googled File Mangler, not seeing what I want now, but I do see “Bulk Rename” in one of the titles, and knowing how annoyed I get going though the file rename drill I find myself in on a nearly weekly basis, I follow the link that eventually leads me to Many Tricks Name Mangler, and I am pleasantly surprised to find a great utility that does exactly what I want it to do.

The interface is simple utilizing simple drag and drop, or populate from the application, based on the current finder selection or path contents. You can also filter that down by folder or folder contents, as well a sort by various file attributes. There are 7 different methods for renaming your files:

1. Find and Replace, which provide a simple character substitution rename, as well as a REGEX rename.
2. Number Sequentially, providing exactly what I have been looking for, for a while sequentially rename a number files while applying a specific prefix or suffix to the file name, while not impacting the extension.
3. Change Case, which does exactly as the name implies.
4. Set ExtensionRenames just the extension
5. Add Prefix/SuffixSimply add a prefix or suffix to the file with or without impacting the extension
6. Remove/Insert CharactersThis is a great feature, as I used to have to make several passes with the script to accomplish this, say you have files named Picture-01 through Picture-20, and you need to make the files appear as Pict_img_01, you can do it. 
7. Advanced Which is fairly robust scripting tool that can take care of anything that the previous 6 couldn’t handle.

Another cool thing is that all the above can be made into customized droplets that are totally fire and forget.

Name Mangler despite its name, is a great little app that id donationware, and is a valuable tool to have at your disposal…