Import // rename photos

Question

does anybody know
how can I replace about 2000 photos in indesign without having to import and rename the photos?
for example if I have 4 photos in a document, named A,B,C,D located in a folder named X
and I want to replace them with 4 different photos, named E,F,G,H located in a folder named Y , is there a possible way to do it automatically instead of manually?

Answer 1

I got that.. is just an endless procedure to re-link each image...as well as rebuilding from scratch (with bridge contact sheet)
I cannot rename the images because they belong to specific libraries and they ought to have the specific names however
your second suggestion "export the file to a .inx file and open the file in a text editor, like notepad or something, and then find the reference to a.tiff and replace it with b.tiff.", might be faster because I already have txt files listing the images. SO the replacement in a notepad of a.tiff to b.tiff its more than easy.
if I do  that what could you please tell me what is the next step in order for my initial .indd file to take the information from .inx file?
--- Στις Τετ., 06/05/09, ο/η Eugene Tyson <[email protected]> έγραψε:
Από: Eugene Tyson <[email protected]>
Θέμα: import // rename photos
Προς: "ioanna antoniadi" <[email protected]>
Ημερομηνία: Τετάρτη, 6 Μάιος 2009, 15:41
You basically have to tell indesign what image you want to link to. If you say that you want to link to a.tiff and then you want to change the image to b.tiff you have to Relink the image. As all indesign sees is a path to the file, i.e., c:\mydocuments\eugene\images\a.tiff
InDesign has no way of reading your mind and inserting the b.tiff instead.
The only other way to do it is to rename b.tiff to be a.tiff
Or if you export the file to a .inx file and open the file in a text editor, like notepad or something, and then find the reference to a.tiff and replace it with b.tiff.
But you don't want to do that.
What I'd do is load up my cursor with all the images I wanted to place and go to each image and just click on it to insert the new image.
or
I'd select the images in the links panel (Window>Links) and choose Relink, and then when prompted to relink A.tiff I'd choose b.tiff, and when prompted for the next image I'd select the new image I wanted to place.
But InDesign won't be able to read your mind, you have to tell it what image you want to replace the other image.