Working with Presets

Once you start using Better Rename more frequently, you’ll soon find that you are often applying the same renaming actions over and over again. Presets are the most powerful way of automating such tasks, and the preferred one.

A preset is a snapshot of your current action settings, including all the actions of a multi-step rename. You can restore these settings with a single click at any time.

Presets only store action settings. They do not store application settings such as whether the confirmation dialog is shown, nor the Process: checkboxes for files, folders and subfolders. Those live in the Settings window and the main window respectively.

Presets appear in two places: at the bottom of the Presets menu and in the Presets tab of the Advanced Sidebar (View › Show Presets Panel, Shift-Command-P).

Saving the current actions as a preset

1. Set up the action, or the actions of a multi-step rename, as you want them
2. Choose Presets › New Preset With Current Action(s)…, or click the + button at the bottom of the Presets tab
3. Type a name for the new preset

Loading a preset

Choose the preset by name at the bottom of the Presets menu, or double-click it in the Presets tab of the Advanced Sidebar. The current actions are replaced by the actions stored in the preset, and the preview updates at once.

Renaming a preset

1. In the Presets tab of the Advanced Sidebar, move the mouse pointer over the preset; a … button appears on its row
2. Click the … button and choose Edit Name from the popup menu
3. Type the new name and press Return

Deleting a preset

Select the preset in the Presets tab of the Advanced Sidebar and choose Presets › Delete Current Preset(s), or click the - button at the bottom of the tab. Several presets can be selected and deleted at once.

Sharing, importing and exporting presets

Each preset is stored in its own file, so presets can be copied between Macs and shared with other users. Use the import and export items in the Presets menu, or the import and export buttons at the bottom of the Presets tab; the export applies to the selected presets.

Presets › Reveal Presets Folder in Finder… shows the folder on disk where your presets are kept, which is useful for backups.

Applying presets without opening the main window

Once you have at least one preset, you can drop files and folders onto the icon of the closed application and pick a preset from the panel that appears. The files are renamed straight away, with or without the confirmation dialog. See Applying presets from the popup.