I've been using Aperture for the last year+, and I'm perplexed by its renaming capabilities, or lack thereof. I use referenced files where I batch rename the original files on import so that original filenames and version names match and are of the form:

dateCustomNameIndex

where the index # is the original filename out of the camera. Even at this point, I've got two quick questions:

1) I prefer the dating format YYMMDD - am I correct in thinking that this is not an option with Aperture's renaming widgets? As a workaround I've simply entered the text for the year and then added the month and day widgets.

2) I prefer to preserve the indexing number out of the camera but don't need the rest of the original camera filename (the letters or whatever else the camera uses). Other image management software I've used lets one use a 'search and replace' renaming widget so that you could include the original camera filename, search and replace out the stuff you don't want and tack on whatever else you do want. Is there really no way to search and replace in Aperture renaming? Workarounds here are either to simply keep the parts of the original camera filename you don't want or manually enter the starting index number for an index widget so that it matches that out of the camera.

But I digress, I've got a question about what has to be a very common use case, and for which I can't figure out a way to batch rename:

I want to batch duplicate versions for all the images in an album and then batch rename those new versions so that their names preserve the original version name and add an addendum to it.

Let's say I've got an entire album of images for which I want to make b&w versions. The first version and the original files have the aforementioned name format dateCustomNameIndex. I duplicate versions for the entire album, and all the new versions have the new version name 'dateCustomNameIndex - Version 2'. I would, naturally, prefer the version to have a useful name such as 'dateCustomNameIndex-bw'. So, before we go further:

3) is there a way to duplicate versions and rename versions at the same time, to simply tack on a version designator like 'bw'?

And, if not, is there a way to batch rename the new versions so that the original version name is preserved with an addendum like 'bw'? I don't see one. Assuming there's no search and replace where you could replace 'Version 2' with 'bw', then one would think you could use the original referenced filename and then tack on a 'bw' for the version, but as Joseph has noted elsewhere when using the original referenced filename, you end up with a useless 'dateCustomNameIndex.tif-bw' where the file extension ends up inside the filename. I'm trying to preserve the original index numbers on these files and they're not necessarily in complete sequence so I can't simply reindex (in which case I could manually text enter the dateCustomName part and then use a new Index counter set properly and then finally add the new customName widget.. but that's neither here nor there).

So, I can hardly believe it, but I can't figure out how to batch rename duplicate versions while preserving the original version name and adding an addendum like 'bw'!?

Hope I'm overlooking something here. all the best and thanks! Lane
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