Batch renaming is a great and anticipated functionality for PhotoLab.
I think that the three kinds of actions are very well thought through.
On this first implementation, the behavior is a bit raw.
The system forgets the last selected action (maybe the most useful).
The last action needs to be recalled.
The most powerful action (in my opinion) is Rename & Add Counter for full renaming with a chosen starting number and number of digits.
However, the counter always starts at 0 instead of 1 and does not remember the number of digits.
I would like the system to remember the user’s choice, in my case 000.
The checkbox for confirming the action is useless or it should close itself.
Dear PhotoLab users, I need your vote in order to encourage DxO to refine this very useful utility.
Of course, this is the minimal expected improvement. Others include:
Now that DxO has added file renaming it becomes an infinite rabbit hole. As I predicted, half a feature only brings out the absolutist in all of us.
Serious file renaming on EXIF requires two full applications: Better Finder Rename and Better Finder Attributes. None of the other renaming utilities (I own and have tested them all) can do much more than what’s in Photolab. Photomechanic has a renaming utility almost as powerful as Better Finder Rename, with very sophisticated syntax. Example:
This yields a result like: Kittsee-at-Winden-2020109-194315-Loose-ball-in-front-of-Winden-net.jpg
Photomechanic renaming still needs to be processed afterwards in a simple external renaming utility to remove spaces and punctuation from file names if captions or camera name is included (that’s been done with the sample name above).
I hope improving this renaming tool (file management, which I would like to keep out of Photolab, my RAW development tool, it’s nothing like a Lightroom replacement) does not become a Sisyphean task for the Photolab developers. The Photomechanic guys do nothing except write file ingestion and renaming routines and struggle with metadata compatibility. It’s a full time job for a full team of developers.
While I’m using some of these features in Photomechanic now (and before that in Better Finder Rename and Better Finder Attributes), I’d hate to see this kind of granular file management sneak its way into Photolab through the back door. Add too much functionality to an application and it ends up like Lightroom, okay at everything but particularly good at its core task (providing best-in-class RAW processing tools with an attractive interface).
I’m using ExifRenamer (macOS) and have been more than happy with it so far. But if it could be done right from DxO PL, that would be a plus in simplifying my workflow.