How To Change Extensions of Groups of Files on Mac
Even though you may not often find yourself needing to do this, your Mac has a convenient tool that allows for easy management of large groups of files, including renaming a lot of them with a single action, once you set your desired options. This article will give you a few quick and easy steps to follow if you want to change the extensions of a lot of files at once.
If you need to change the extensions of a group of files at the same time, you will first need to make sure you have all their original extensions displayed in the first place.
Open Finder, then click on Preferences. In the preferences window, click the Advanced tab and check the box that reads "All Filename Extensions". Next, close the Finder preferences window, to apply your new setting.
Once you have done that, open Finder and navigate to any directory or folder that contains the files you need to change to a different extension.
Select all files you need to apply new extensions to, and once they are all selected, either right click or Control-click any of the highlighted selected files. Once the drop-down menu shows up, select "Rename items".
A new window will come up. Click the dropdown menu button near the top and select "Replace text" in it. Next, in the "Find" box, enter the original extension of the selected files, for example ".jpg". Finally, in the "Replace with" box, enter the new extension of the files you want to apply, let's say ".png".
Once you have entered both extensions, with the dots in front of them included, click the "Rename" button. This will take care of instantly renaming all selected files and changing their extension to the new one you need.
You can perform similar tasks with file names, renaming a series of images in sequential order, as well as a number of other file-related operations, all of this within Finder, depending on your exact goal and purpose.
