17 October 2010
Colons in Mac Finder file naming
22/10/10 12:15
Ever try to copy the names of files from a PC or CD to a Mac, only to have the Finder say “Try using a file name without punctuation”? Prescription for a happy Mac: Check its colon. Colons are reserved for special cases under the Unix framework that the MacOS is built on. Just get rid of the colon. For example:
You insert a CD, and copy the entire contents to your hard drive (instead of importing it into iTunes, so that you can use it for top quality video mixing in a video). In the FInder, the files you copied are called “Track 1” etc. But iTunes, but querying the online CD name database, found the title of track 1 to be “Mozart:The Unfinished Symphony” and you wish to copy the name from iTunes and Paste it to the filenames on your hard drive. Just copy and paste, and before clicking away from the blue shaded pasted text, click on the colon, and make it a semi colon. It still has the same look, and the Finder is happy.
You insert a CD, and copy the entire contents to your hard drive (instead of importing it into iTunes, so that you can use it for top quality video mixing in a video). In the FInder, the files you copied are called “Track 1” etc. But iTunes, but querying the online CD name database, found the title of track 1 to be “Mozart:The Unfinished Symphony” and you wish to copy the name from iTunes and Paste it to the filenames on your hard drive. Just copy and paste, and before clicking away from the blue shaded pasted text, click on the colon, and make it a semi colon. It still has the same look, and the Finder is happy.
