Tip: Organizing unnamed DSC0000x.jpg pictures

I thought I would start a tips & tricks feature here in 'Confessions...' - I have a few that are obscure, and I know they can help some of you folks out. - Rob

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Tip: Organizing and moving those darned generic 'DSC0000x.jpg' images from your computer to a central folder

I was helping a family member retrieve their photos from a computer which was about to be donated to a local school, and ran into a problem - - How do I quickly grab all of their pictures, put them onto a CD, organize them so they can easily view them, and not lose any in the process? Difficulty: All the files are named with generic names, and there are multiple files that have the same name in different folders.

Typically, an average person will not categorize or specifically name their digital photographs nor will they copy them to a single folder which can be easily copied to a DVD or other removable media.

Also, digital cameras have the tendancy to name their files something like 'DSC0001', 'DSC0002', etc. - the counter resets when a new SD/xD/etc. card is inserted into the camera, or the battery dies, then you better save your pictures into a new directory, or else you might overwrite an important (or embarassing!) memory!

This obviously presents a problem. When the pictures are synchronized to a computer, they might be copied into individual folders organized by date, or perhaps you or someone else named the folder to something special like '2006 fishing trip'. It is very easy to then end up with multiple folders which have pictures stored in them that have the same filenames as different pictures in other folders.

How to handle this? Well, I'll give you my method, which seemed to work pretty well!

Downside to my method: If the original files are contained in subfolders which do have names (this is more likely the case with many folks), then you will lose this information. However, by the time you get to the end of this tutorial, you'll see how it could be easy to rebuild them.

Let's get started!
My first step was to perform a search in the user profile (typically this is where they are stored) images... *.jpg in this case.

• Press the Windows Key + [F] to bring up the find files window.
• In 'All or part of the file name', type *.jpg
• Click the 'Look in' dropdown, and scroll to the top to select 'My Documents' (or whatever root folder you desire).
• Click 'Search' - wait for it...

Ok, now that we've performed the search, you may see a number of similarly named files. In my case, all my pictures listed above are named 'Picture (x).jpg' - - you may have some others that are titled/named...or not.

The easiest way to isolate them is to click the 'name' column header to sort all the similarly named files together.
For my demonstration, I have 5 folders that all have pictures in them with the same naming convention...

You can see already that I have 5 'Picture.jpg' - - - one in each of my subfolders. I have no idea by the description what they are, but I'm pretty sure that they are not the same picture.

Now, we need to figure out how to get all these pictures into a destination folder without losing one of them!

Overcoming the problem of copying files with the same name into the same folder
Windows handles duplicate filenames by either overwriting the existing file in the destination folder...or not. There isn't (although I think there should be) the option to rename the copied file to 'copy of filename.jpg' when you are copying to a different directory - - - but there is when you are copying the file to the same folder - but I digress!

So, we need to copy these files...with the aforementioned problem in mind, we need to figure out a way to not lose any pictures, but give us a way to copy them into the same folder without overwriting each other.

Renaming the files in sequential order (eliminating duplicated filenames)
Ok. While you have the pictures in your search window, left-click once on the first 'picture.jpg' file (or whatever yours is named - - i.e. 'DSC0001.jpg') to highlight the file.
Press the [shift] key on your keyboard. Then using the mouse, scroll the search window down to find the last 'picture.jpg' file. Still holding the [shift] key down, click on that file. Your similarly named files should now all be highlighted, ready to be renamed.

Press [F2] to rename the file. The last file you highlight should be giving you a flashing cursor prompt, indicating to you to type the new name of the file.

Since we have all the files highlighted, this means that the rename function will apply to all files selected.

Wait, won't that mean there will just be that many duplicated filenames?
Nope - Windows actually does this pretty well. I kinda gave this away in my screenshots...Windows puts a (x) after the file name, but before the extension to denote that it is the x'th number in the series.
Ok, now that I've allayed your fears, go ahead and press [Enter] to start the rename function.
Note on how long the rename takes: Depending on how many files you have selected, the process will take a bit of time, and it won't give you a real good indication of how far along in the rename process you are. You'll just see that your window will return to your control after a bit of processing.

Note on the search window: If you are renaming thousands of files, the search window tends to get a bit confused by this renaming process (since during the process, there are copies of the files made, and the search is trying to pick them up)...so stick it out and wait for it to finish before cursing at me for giving you such terrible advice! Once finished the search window may update itself and display the correct results, but I usually like to perform the search again to make sure I didn't miss anything.
Just click 'Search' again, and you should now see all of your files, named as sequentially - - even though they are in different subfolders!
Move those files!

Now, you can create a new destination folder anywhere on your system and move your pictures to it. Keep your search window open, and create a new folder somewhere on your hard drive (or thumbdrive, etc.) ...my example is 'c:\temp\pictures'.

Back in your search window, highlight all your files you wish to move and right-click the files> 'Cut'.

Browse to your newly created folder, and once you are inside, right-click> 'Paste'. Now all of your unnamed pictures are in a single folder, and nobody is overwriting each other!

Extra credit: Rename by picture date taken

While you are in your destination folder, click on 'Tools'> 'Details'. This will give you a list-view of your files.

Right-click the caption 'Name' in the column above the files

Next, click on 'More...'. The 'Choose Details' dialog will appear.

Scroll down the listing and enable 'Date Picture Taken'.

Click 'OK' to close the dialog.

If you resize your window (if necessary), you should now see the column for the 'Date Picture Taken'.

Then, you can sort your pictures by the date they were taken, and you could rename your pictures one more time! This way, the named sequence will follow the picture taken dates, and pics from the same trip, etc. (most likely) will be all together chronologically.

I know this was a long walk-through, but it helped me so much I just had to share it...once you get them all arranged, you can use a tool like Picasa to add more details/captions/etc.!

Good luck!