SHRALLDAM  The developer reacts quickly when he finds an issue. If he considers the issue was important enough to need a patch, what's wrong with that? Besides, Sparkle is included in ABFR, so the update is a really smooth process. Blaming developers for updating their software, that's the joke!  
(Version 8.42)

DASH77  Its a benefit for both users and developers to have regular update-cycles. If a version isnt released to fix a *critical* bug i'd say a period of a month for updates is reasonable.

*EVERY* *TIME* I launch ABFR it wants to update. Thats annoying and certainly not time efficient (neither for users nor for the developer).

For the love of God: try to bundle your fixes. Let there be a new version every month or so (again: if not a critical bug needs to be fixed)!  
(Version 8.42)

WERTY  What's wrong with you guys? I'm happy that the developer is so fast to fixing bugs and improving the application. If you don't want it to update so often go to preference and put the automatic check for update to "every month" instead of daily.

We will be all happy.  
(Version 8.43)

153957PHOTOGRAPHY  @DASH77:

Open ABFR, Go to Preferences, Select the Software Updates Tab, Chosoe Weekly/Monthly. That should prevent it from being updated 'to often'.

If ABFR presents you with an update that you do not think is necessary, simply choose the 'Skip this Version' button in the update window.  
(Version 8.44)

CORPSECORPS  Are you compelled to download every one at gunpoint?  
(Version 8.45)

SHRALLDAM  I have the same exact problem. Being able to reorganize the list before applying the changes would be a terrific feature. This "issue" put aside, ABFR is a wonderful product and very valuable.  
(Version 8.33)

LOUNGE DELUXE  I'm just being curious here, but why would you want to reorganize the list of files before applying a rename command?

I fully agree with you, ABFR is a wonderful and very feature rich app and product support is excellent. For future releases I'd like to see more possibilities for editing tags of music files.  
(Version 8.36)

SHRALLDAM  Sometimes, when you need to rename files that have already a number sequence in their names, that order doesn't necessarily reflect what the right order should be (for example, a "file006" that should be "file004" instead). Because ABFR uses the default alphabetical and incremental order to display files in the list before they are renamed, there's actually no way to decide that number 6 should become number 4, and vice versa. Should you decide that this picture comes before this other picture, for example, you won't be able to do it. Or maybe am I unaware of the process to do it?  
(Version 8.36)

WERTY  I sent a mail to their support, this is what they answered:

"We do occasionally get requests for such a "manual sorting" feature and it could be quite useful as long as you don't have very many files (manually sorting 1000 files would become tiresome very quickly).

Unfortunately such a sort does not integrate well within the framework of the product which is designed along a more batch criteria based philosophy.

We do have a design that would graceful combine both worlds, but it would require a LOT of work both on the backend and the UI side. As such it will not be introduced in a minor update, but will have to wait for at least version 9 (a year or two away at least), but the feature scope for that is far from being finalised.."

They were really fast and kind, it should be ok to post their message right?  
(Version 8.36)

FRANK REIFF  Yes, the system service is available in the context menu as soon as you activate it.

The new version 8.28 has detailed instructions which are also available on my blog:

http://www.publicspace.net/blog/macbreakz/2009/08/28/snow-leopard-update/

I hope this helps.

Best regards,

Frank  
(Version 8.27)

DRDUL  I agree. I use ABFR and ABFA, and how I deal with the clunky names is that when installing or upgrading, I drag the app out of the DMG onto my desktop, rename it to "ABFR" or "ABFA," and then drag it into the Applications folder. I'm not big on the contextual menu items, so I skip that part, as well as the pref pane. I may yet add a Service to the contextual menu in 10.6, but only if I can rename it to "ABFR" or create one by that name with Automator.

Other than the name issue, both ABFR and ABFA are great apps. I switched to ABFR from Name Mangler, which is also a great app and is free, but which currently doesn't work properly on 10.6.  
(Version 8.27)

FRANK REIFF  The long name is a left over from its early days in 1994.. but has stuck.

Services and contextual menu items are mandated to be explicit and unique by the Apple Human Interface Guidelines and it's usually a good idea to follow those to preserve that "Mac feel".. so it needs to be at least "A Better Finder Rename".

The ellipsis is indicated when the selection does not result in immediate action but brings up a further dialog, so we get to "A Better Finder Rename ...".

Leaving the version number out isn't a good idea because you can have (and many people do have) both version 7 and version 8 installed at the same time..

It would have been better to call the product "Renamer" or something shorter when it came out :-)  
(Version 8.27)

DRDUL  Hi Frank! You know, there's no rule that says you can't change the name of an app, even after 15 years! :-)  
(Version 8.28)

FRANK REIFF  There pretty much is.. I floated the idea with my alpha tester group and well.. it didn't fly.

What's more there's of course the links to the decade of web page links, google ranking, reviews, name recognition, etc to take into account.. besides to my great surprise the majority of the people I asked actually liked the current name :-)  
(Version 8.28)

MISHA  If you want a REALLY basic rename tool, this can help you out. If you want any options (add text X places in, replace only the third occurrence, etc.) or way more flexibility (rename based on ID3 tags, and a ton more) ABFR is the only way to go..  
(Version 8.27)

LOUNGE DELUXE  Judging from your comment I'd say you never even used ABFR once, otherwise you would have known that ABFR is an extremely feature rich app that does so much more than a simple file rename. Good luck creating Automator Workflows of all ABFR features, mate.  
(Version 8.24)

NIGEL2112  For the life of me I cannot understand what you are talking about, I mean no offense dude but I've been using ABFR for a good while now and it's been totally rock solid and has just about every possible combination of ways to rename files that I can think of and quite frankly I doubt that I would have the bravery to go into Automator and attempt to recreate the same functionality and in any case I've tried the free rename apps and they're good but ABFR has it all so I bought it and have not regretted it once as I consider it a must have app until Apple comes up with an alternative and even then I don't think it would be as good and that's all I have to say about (ok, mock) the comments by 'Iconz113' except to say that I hope you have enjoyed reading this run-on sentence.  
(Version 8.26)

ICONZ113  NIGEL2112, if you cant understand simple instructions to create 3 folders and place a file inside of one of them you have problems my friend. Im just trying to help someone that may not want to buy the application. I see from your comments the only time you say something is when your complaining. Hope that being a prick thing works out for you.   
(Version 8.26)

NIGEL2112  A 'prick' is someone who can't take light-hearted ribbing and responds with mindless insults. I prefer real insults: "Ha ha 'icons13' you don't know how to spell."

"You write comments on software you've never used."

"Your mother dropped you one too many times."

Those are proper insults.

Come on. Lighten up. Life's too short. Have you never seen Top Gear?

(Or maybe you drive a BMW??)

Anyway.

ABFR is excellent.

I use it daily and can heartily recommend it.

Well worth 20 smackeroos.

5 stars.  
(Version 8.26)

CORPSECORPS  ICONZ113; to be fair, you say "Inside the finder folder place the batch workflow file inside."

Besides being redundant, that sentence doesn't specify where that file comes from. Personally i wouldn't give up ABFRX but i did some searches and i didn't find anything on my HD that seemed appropriate, even among things related to Automator.

I do have AppZapper and yep, to my surprise there IS a ZAP! workflow in my contextual menu. I would never have known, because since Apple relegated contextual menu items to the "More" sub-menu instead of allowing the contextual menu to be organized according to what the user needs most, i don't even like to use it unless i must. I use the ABFRX hotkey so i don't have to use its CM item.  
(Version 8.27)

FRANK REIFF  The trouble is the Sparkle auto-update framework crashes in 64-bit mode on the PowerPC G5..

If you've got a moment, get in touch with me at reiff@publicspace.net; I don't have a G5 testing machine at the moment (both PowerMacs blew their cpus), but there's a new version of Sparkle so it's possible they've fixed the bug..  
(Version 8.18)