As I prepare to migrate from Aperture to another program, I am trying to tidy up my library. Deleting images, ranking some and so on. Most importantly I want to get my IMAGE NAMES as clean as possible according to the naming convention I use.
(Sometimes I made mistakes when naming my images. For example sometimes I had inadvertently grouped a couple DIFFERENT sets of photos together on import and they go the SAME Name.
Well here is the problem. When RENAMING, the original image-file-name does not go away. Even when I tell Aperture to REPLACE AND NOT APPEND the new information. So I wind up with precisely that–my new name and then the old file name.
Any guidance as to what mistake I might be making?
Thanks.
Replace, not append applies to “Add metadata from”. Set this to None
The name format applied to your file is the one you choose. By default it is “current version name”. Select the format you want from that dropdown. You probably want “Image date/time”. Also consider whether you want to check “Apply to original files” - I would imagine you probably do, otherwise files will have different names inside and outside Aperture.
d.
David: thank you so much for your response, and forgive me for my late acknowledgment. I have been off the grid for a bit, but am back. I studied your comment and have done testing. Your counsel to SELECT NONE, is very helpful. But I am still stuck. I don’t GET RID of my previous name, even with this choice. I am wondering if, once I have previously RENAMED a file WITHOUT choosing NONE, the previous name BECOMES STICKY, because it is attached and not appended to the file.
I will test this some more, and tell you what I come up with.
Perhaps more importantly, please accept my apology for my tardy response. I am grateful.
Hiya
No problems re delay. Select NONE merely stops you from duplicating metadata - so you done’t end up with Author = Jane Smith, Jane Smith, Jane Smith, Jane Smith…
That step is necessary, but not sufficient.
To get rid of original image names, this is what you do:
“Version name format” is the key field. It defaults to Current Version Name. You want (I think) yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss (2014-01-19 12:34:15) or similar. There are two options that will sort of give that
1) Version name and Date/Time
2) Image Date/Time
So if your file is DSC_9134 taken on Jan 4 2015 at 12:34
Option 1 will rename the version to DSC_9134 2015-1-4 12:34
Option 2 will rename the version to 2015-1-4 12:34
Now, at this point the actual file on disk in your managed or referenced library is still called DSC_2134.NEF or whatever. The Version Name is only used by aperture when showing you the file. Like when Jane Smith gets married and all her friends call her Jane Brown, but until she’s formal told her employer or the tax office she’s still Jane Smith to them. To rename the actual file that you see in the finder you need to check “Apply to Original Files”.
And that really should be that!
And no, there’s not a problem with stickiness!
cheers
d.
d.
David: thanks again. I find that when I follow your guidance and use version name date/ time or image name date/time, the renaming process works as I had hoped for. The previous data in my name is gone.
But I use a custom format. Here are the elements:
custom name/ image date/ image time/ ORIGINAL FILE NAME /copyright /image year.
When I use my custom file name template, the previous name that I am trying to rename stays. Now I am wondering it it is because I include “original file name’ in my template.
The reason I put ‘original file name’ in my template is that I like to know the name that came out of the camera. I just like having that bit of data available. DSCN_xxx, Img_xxx, whatever that name may be.
With my testing, it seems that when I remove “original file name” from my template, it works as you indicate it s should. Then when I put that component (original file name) back in my template, the previous name stays along with the new name.
And I wonder if HAVING RENAMED the file once (with a typo or such or just some sort of mistake) that original file name stays because it has been embedded in the file and won’t clear because my custom template includes original file name? In other words, from the point of view of aperture, the original file name is no longer the name that came out of the camera but the new name that has been written to the file?
Make sense? Or am I still missing a beat?
Thanks.
Further Testing:
So I made a template that substituted version name for original file name in my template. I named a file . Then I used batch change to rename it with the new template and gave it a new custom name in the first component of the template. The old file name did not go away. I will continue to test. I am beginning to think that in a custom template, after the custom name in the first tab, you can’t add another piece of information and expect it to disappear with batch change. Will continue to test.
Thanks.
And Even More testing re BATCH RENAMING.
It appears I am fine to use an “original name” field in my custom template for NAMING/NOT FOR RENAMING. It does exactly what I want. It keeps the camera name. (And one reason I like that is it is very helpful for finding duplicates.)
But it also appears when it comes to BATCH RENAMING/ (vs batch naming)–the original file name is sticky. It won’t go away and will in fact keep repeating itself if you keep renaming with ORIGINAL FILE NAME in the template.
I hope I am wrong or I hope there is a reasonable work around. But as far as I can see, using ORIGINAL FILE NAME in a template for naming will give you a name that repeats the CUSTOM NAME.
Still checking. Still testing. But I don’t see a way to keep Original file name in a naming template, when used to batch RENAME or individually rename with the batch command. It somehow gives the custom name (which was the mistake I was trying to correct).
Surprising to me.
I think that Aperture interprets “Original file name” as “the file name on disk”, so once you have renamed DSC_1234 to 2015-05-21… any record of DSC_1234 is gone as I don’t think the “as-shot filename” is anywhere in the metadata. Does that explain what you are seeing?
d.
Yes: that seems to be the explanation. But that is why I put original file name in my naming template. That way I keep camera name in original naming. Just can’t keep it in renaming. Somehow original file name keeps the new name (in my example a name with a mistake) along the camera name. So the mistake becomes sticky unless you remove that component from the template. Thanks so much for your help.