A few newbie questions that I'm pondering...
A few newbie questions that don't really seem to be hurting anything but they keep popping up:
1. When I do "get info" on my hard drive (internal and external), one of the options is to 'index' it. I think this means it makes like a list of whats on the drive so it makes searches faster but I'm not sure. And should I do this and how often should it be done.
2. I have an external firewire hard drive that I have added but when I went to do the "repair permissions" on it to make sure everything was fine and it said permissions are not set on this drive. My question is do I need to turn this on or is it OK to leave it off and how often should I do the permissions repair maintenance?
3. When I download an app from macupdate or versiontracker and its an update to an app already on my computer then do I just tell it to install the update at the location of the current application and it will overwrite/replace what it needs to in order to update the app or should I be doing something else here?
4. I have a sony cybershot digital camera and when I upload the pictures from the camera into iPhoto it names them something long like "2004-12-06-0032", is there a way to tell it to name them like 001, 002, 003 and so on?
5. Related to Number 4 ^ - I have about 200 photos in a folder that are named like noted above (2004-12-06-0032), is there a program that I can use to select all the photos and tell it to rename using a different format like 001, 002, 003 etc.
Any help on these issues would be greatly appreciated.
rberry88
1. When I do "get info" on my hard drive (internal and external), one of the options is to 'index' it. I think this means it makes like a list of whats on the drive so it makes searches faster but I'm not sure. And should I do this and how often should it be done.
2. I have an external firewire hard drive that I have added but when I went to do the "repair permissions" on it to make sure everything was fine and it said permissions are not set on this drive. My question is do I need to turn this on or is it OK to leave it off and how often should I do the permissions repair maintenance?
3. When I download an app from macupdate or versiontracker and its an update to an app already on my computer then do I just tell it to install the update at the location of the current application and it will overwrite/replace what it needs to in order to update the app or should I be doing something else here?
4. I have a sony cybershot digital camera and when I upload the pictures from the camera into iPhoto it names them something long like "2004-12-06-0032", is there a way to tell it to name them like 001, 002, 003 and so on?
5. Related to Number 4 ^ - I have about 200 photos in a folder that are named like noted above (2004-12-06-0032), is there a program that I can use to select all the photos and tell it to rename using a different format like 001, 002, 003 etc.
Any help on these issues would be greatly appreciated.
rberry88
Comments
5. A Better Finde Rename
For example, I upload 100 photos from camera into iPhoto and they all have the name "2004-06-21-0001" and they increment the last 4 digits with each one so the next one would be uploaded as "2004-06-21-0002" and so on. I want to rename them all at once but have them named "001", "002" etc. Instead of having to rename each one individually and manually.
rberry88
4/5. Why do you want to rename them? If you're viewing them in iPhoto, you don't even see the filenames, and you can always add captions to them if you like. I don't see why you'd want to go from one arbitrary naming system ("2004-12-06-0032") which at least has useful information (date), is easy to sort, and has near-infinite unique namespace; to another arbitrary naming system ("001") which has no useful information and very limited namespace. You're also liable to confuse iPhoto if you rename things without then re-importing them.
I assume you're new to the Mac world, and used to organizing everything in your computer by hand. General advice upon making the switch to Mac: let the computer do the work. Let iPhoto take care of the raw files. Instead of wasting your time with filenames, use Albums to organize them. Similarly, let iTunes organize your mp3's, and use Playlists and Library Browse instead. Your files are still there in their original formats; nothing's happened to the data, and it's easy enough to find a particular .JPG in the Finder or make a backup of the whole library. But let the iApp do the day-to-day dirty work. That's what they're made for, and they're good at it. It's hard to let go - took me a while, too. But once you do, your life gets a bit easier.
Originally posted by Towel
I assume you're new to the Mac world, and used to organizing everything in your computer by hand. General advice upon making the switch to Mac: let the computer do the work. Let iPhoto take care of the raw files. Instead of wasting your time with filenames, use Albums to organize them. Similarly, let iTunes organize your mp3's, and use Playlists and Library Browse instead. Your files are still there in their original formats; nothing's happened to the data, and it's easy enough to find a particular .JPG in the Finder or make a backup of the whole library. But let the iApp do the day-to-day dirty work. That's what they're made for, and they're good at it. It's hard to let go - took me a while, too. But once you do, your life gets a bit easier.
Thanks for the comments, that puts my mind to ease like you wouldn't believe. I bought a new iMac 2 weeks ago (1st time using a Mac) and can't shake the habits (now known as bad habits) from my time using a PC. I figure its better if I ask the newbie questions now before I develop any new habits in the Mac world (good or bad).
rberry88