Suggestions for improved usability of the batch rename dialog
Affected version
- Other: Arch Linux, Files 45.0
Steps to reproduce
- Select multiple files
- Click "Rename"
- Be confused
Batch renaming is a killer feature, but the template placeholders are currently hard to discover and not very intuitive.
The first time I used it I was at a total loss as to what template variables were available to me. I couldn't find documentation online (and my built-in help currently isn't working lol, looks like this issue). Ultimately I asked for help on r/gnome and it looks like I'm not the only one confused by the rename dialog.
I was educated on the "Add" button, and it's working great now, but my confusion and the confusion of other users seems like a pretty good signal that discoverability could be improved. I didn't even try the "Add" button, I think that I was thinking it would add more files to the list of files to be renamed. In any case, I definitely didn't think it would insert template placeholders.
The fix could be as simple as renaming the "Add" button to something like "Insert placeholder" (though that's a bit wordy?).
Even Less Clicking
To go a step further (and this might need to be a separate issue), I noticed that typing [1, 2, 3]
(or any other placeholder) into the input field doesn't enable the placeholder substitution, you actually have to go through the "Add" button. For me this is not ideal when I just want to quickly slap a numbered index onto some files I'm renaming (which I assume is a super common use case). I just want to type new-name-[i].png
(/ new-name-[ii].png
/ new-name-[iii].png
). The ability to control the order in which the files are renamed is nice, but perhaps that could be triggered by the presence of an enumerator template placeholder in the input field, rather than being triggered off of the "Add" drop-down.