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Using Droplets

Droplets are small, independent, applications that automate common tasks. You save a rename action and the correct parameters into such a droplet application and every time you drag some files on the droplet the files are automatically renamed according to these settings.

This feature allows you to automate frequent tasks such converting file names for upload to Windows systems, creating numbered file lists, etc. All you need to do in order to apply the settings is to drag the new files onto the droplet icon.

The animation below illustrates how droplets work. On the left side you see the "Add '.jpeg' Droplet". When the "my picture" file is dragged and dropped onto droplet, the interactive rename screen with the correct new file name is automatically opened. Pressing rename applies the change.

(the animation shows an older version of the tool and your dialog box design may vary slightly.)

Droplet Tips & Tricks

A number of features of A Better Finder Rename are particularly useful in the context of creating droplets.

Tick "Show confirmation dialog before renaming" if you want the droplet to show you a dialog detailing the changes that will be made before they are applied. Untick the check box if you want the changes to be applied without prompting you first. This saves time, but be careful not to apply the wrong changes!

The "Completely rename" action lets you create a droplet that always renames a file to the same name. This may be useful in some workflows (for instance for renaming catalog files to a standard name when new scans arrive).

The "Manually rename" action lets you create a droplet that allows you to interactively rename large numbers of files without having to select them one by one in the Finder.

If you want to use a droplet as part of a fully automated workflow, you may want to consider creating a "silent" droplet which does not present the user with any interactive dialogs during execution.