Okay, I wrote a script that can subtract strings from a file name. Combined with Photoshop’s ability to add to file names, this is useful when you have to constantly have to remain name thousands of filenames to indicate what stage of the production process they are in (this is something we do a lot of where I work).
I’ll add this to the tutorial I have up here:
http://www.geocities.com/lawrence_k.geo/ Script below.
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// This first line simply creates a variable where we will, later on, store the names
// of the files whose names we change. We do this so that at the end of the script we
// can say, hey, we changed these names.
var filesRenamed = "We changed the names of these files: ";
// This next line causes a dialog box to open on screen and ask the // user to choose a folder. Every file in the folder will be effected // by this script.
var selectedFolder = Folder.selectDialog("Select the folder to run this script on. All files in the folder will be affected.");
// This next line makes sure that we really do have a reference to a folder.
// The user might cancel the operation at this point, and if so, selectedFolder will
// be empty, in which case there is no point going on with the script. if (selectedFolder instanceof Folder) {
// what should be removed from the file name?
// If you have a file name like "P42_WTTI98_Ochre_Settings.psd" and // you want to get rid of "_Settings" then in this dialog box, when // it opens on screen, you’d type "_Settings". var stringToBeRemoved = prompt("What portion of the file name do you wan to remove (example: ‘_p52’ to remove ‘_P52’ from the file name)", "Type the letters or numbers you’d like removed from file names.");
// The replace command, down below, uses a special variable called // a "regular expression". This is created through the special command // RegExp. The next line basically formats the stringToBeRemoved in a way
// that allows the replace command to understand it. We need to create this
// variable here, instead of down below, because here we can create this
// variable just one time, whereas down below we would be creating it again
// for ever file we intend to change. This is more efficient. regEx = new RegExp(stringToBeRemoved, "g");
// This next line checks to see that the user actually typed something in. If they
// didn’t then there is no point proceeding.
if (stringToBeRemoved != "") {
// The variable selectedFolder is now a reference pointing at the folder we want to effect.
// The getFiles command returns a list of every file in the folder. var allFilesInFolder = selectedFolder.getFiles();
alert("This folder contains this many files: " + allFilesInFolder.length);
// This next line is a special line that causes the script to loop through the list
// of files one at a time. All the lines below are then done to each file, one at a time.
for (var i=0; i < allFilesInFolder.length; i++) {
// This next lines gets a reference to one particular file from the list.
// Each time we go through the loop, the next file in the list will be choosen.
var thisFile = allFilesInFolder[i];
// This next lines gets the name of the file and stores the name in the
// variable called oldName.
var oldName = thisFile.name;
// It’s important that you don’t erase the entire filename. The file might
// disappear if you erase the entire name. This next line makes sure that
// you’re not erasing the whole file name. This next line basically says
// "Proceed only if the letters and numbers to be removed don’t equal the
// whole file name."
if (stringToBeRemoved != oldName) {
// This next line takes whatever value is in stringToBeRemoved and replaces
// it with nothing. Thus the string is removed from the name. However, we
// have not yet changed the file name, we’ve just created a variable called
// newName that has stored the name we’d like the file to have. var newName = oldName.replace(regEx,"");
// This next line is the one that actually changes the file name. We use
// the rename command.
thisFile.rename(newName);
// This next line checks what we just done. File name should now equal the
// new name. If it doesn’t, then something went wrong.
if (thisFile.name != newName) {
alert("Unable to rename " + thisFile.absoluteURI + "->" + newName);
} else {
filesRenamed += newName + ", ";
}
} else {
alert("Sorry, but what you typed is the same as the name of the file. You’d erase the whole file name! Very bad!"); }
}
} else {
alert("Sorry, but you have to type in something for us to remove it from the filenames.");
}
} else {
alert("Sorry, but you didn’t select a folder."); }
alert("The script is done now." + filesRenamed);
