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I was recently approached by one of my blog readers John Ott, to help out with a bit of a technical challenge he had. John used a fairly complicated filing system for keeping track of lots of documents, blue prints and photos for projects him and his team work on. This included many subfolders with deep subfolders following a strict naming convention. When John starts a project, he used to copy and paste his top-level folder, then work his way through all its subfolders updating the folder names with the new project code. John reached out to me to see if I could help out, so I put together this Bulk folder rename AppleScript which takes user input for source and destination folders and the latest project code, it then traverses the folders and their subfolder and updates the names as required.

-- Apple Script to copy and rename a folder structure and its subfolders
-- Author Mike Hudson (aka MikeSel - https://www.mikesel.info)

tell application "Finder"
    
    set JobName to text returned of (display dialog "Please enter five digit code:" default answer "ST1234")
    set templateFolder to choose folder with prompt "Please Choose Template Folder"
    
    set fldName to name of templateFolder
    
    set newName to my replace_chars(fldName, "ST000", JobName)
    
    set destinationFolder to choose folder with prompt "Please Choose Destination Folder"
    
    set newFolder to duplicate templateFolder to destinationFolder
    set pro_folder to newFolder
    set all_pro_folders to every folder of pro_folder
    log all_pro_folders
    repeat with parent_folder in all_pro_folders
        log parent_folder
        set child_folders to every folder of parent_folder
        
        repeat with current_folder in child_folders
            set grandchildItems to every item of current_folder
            repeat with grandchildItem in grandchildItems
                set greatgrandchildItems to every item of grandchildItem
                repeat with greatgrandchildItem in greatgrandchildItems
                    set fold_name to the name of greatgrandchildItem
                    log (fold_name)
                    set new_name to my replace_chars(fold_name, "ST000", JobName)
                    set the name of greatgrandchildItem to new_name
                    log (new_name)
                end repeat
                set fold_name to the name of grandchildItem
                log (fold_name)
                set new_name to my replace_chars(fold_name, "ST000", JobName)
                set the name of grandchildItem to new_name
                log (new_name)
            end repeat
            
            set fold_name to the name of current_folder
            log (fold_name)
            set new_name to my replace_chars(fold_name, "ST000", JobName)
            log (new_name)
            set the name of current_folder to new_name
            
        end repeat
        set fold_name to the name of parent_folder
        log (fold_name)
        set new_name to my replace_chars(fold_name, "ST000", JobName)
        log (new_name)
        set the name of parent_folder to new_name
    end repeat
    
    set pro_folder's name to newName
end tell

on replace_chars(this_text, search_string, replacement_string)
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the search_string
    set the item_list to every text item of this_text
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the replacement_string
    set this_text to the item_list as string
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
    return this_text
end replace_chars

-- Apple Script to copy and rename a folder structure and its subfolders

-- Author Mike Hudson (aka MikeSel - https://www.mikesel.info)

tell application "Finder"

set JobName to text returned of (display dialog "Please enter five digit code:" default answer "ST1234")

set templateFolder to choose folder with prompt "Please Choose Template Folder"

set fldName to name of templateFolder

set newName to my replace_chars(fldName, "ST000", JobName)

set destinationFolder to choose folder with prompt "Please Choose Destination Folder"

set newFolder to duplicate templateFolder to destinationFolder

set pro_folder to newFolder

set all_pro_folders to every folder of pro_folder

log all_pro_folders

repeat with parent_folder in all_pro_folders

log parent_folder

set child_folders to every folder of parent_folder

repeat with current_folder in child_folders

set grandchildItems to every item of current_folder

repeat with grandchildItem in grandchildItems

set greatgrandchildItems to every item of grandchildItem

repeat with greatgrandchildItem in greatgrandchildItems

set fold_name to the name of greatgrandchildItem

log (fold_name)

set new_name to my replace_chars(fold_name, "ST000", JobName)

set the name of greatgrandchildItem to new_name

log (new_name)

end repeat

set fold_name to the name of grandchildItem

log (fold_name)

set new_name to my replace_chars(fold_name, "ST000", JobName)

set the name of grandchildItem to new_name

log (new_name)

end repeat

set fold_name to the name of current_folder

log (fold_name)

set new_name to my replace_chars(fold_name, "ST000", JobName)

log (new_name)

set the name of current_folder to new_name

end repeat

set fold_name to the name of parent_folder

log (fold_name)

set new_name to my replace_chars(fold_name, "ST000", JobName)

log (new_name)

set the name of parent_folder to new_name

end repeat

set pro_folder's name to newName

end tell

on replace_chars(this_text, search_string, replacement_string)

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the search_string

set the item_list to every text item of this_text

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the replacement_string

set this_text to the item_list as string

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""

return this_text

end replace_chars

You can download a zipped up copy of the above script by clicking

If you’ve a project and you’d like to see if I can help, get in touch using my Contact Form.

Using the Redemption object you can use the following code to reset the permissions on a folders sub folders in outlook to leave the Default permissions.

Handy if you need to reset permissions on large numbers of folders.

Sub scall()
Dim TopFolder
Set mySession = CreateObject("Redemption.RDOSession")
mySession.Logon
Set TopFolder = mySession.PickFolder
For i = 1 To TopFolder.Folders.Count
Debug.Print "&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; " &amp; TopFolder.Folders(i).Name
For Each ace In TopFolder.Folders (i).ACL
Debug.Print ace.Name &amp; " - " &amp; ace.rights
If ace.Name "Default" Then
ace.Delete
Debug.Print "&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;
Deleted " &amp; ace.Name
Else
If ace.rights &gt; 0 Then
ace.rights = 0
Debug.Print "&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt; Rights Reset"
Else
Debug.Print "&lt; Rights default"
End If
End If
Next
Next
End Sub

Sub scall()

Dim TopFolder

Set mySession = CreateObject("Redemption.RDOSession")

mySession.Logon

Set TopFolder = mySession.PickFolder

For i = 1 To TopFolder.Folders.Count

Debug.Print ">>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> " & TopFolder.Folders(i).Name

For Each ace In TopFolder.Folders (i).ACL

Debug.Print ace.Name & " - " & ace.rights

If ace.Name "Default" Then

ace.Delete

Debug.Print ">>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Deleted " & ace.Name

Else

If ace.rights > 0 Then

ace.rights = 0

Debug.Print "<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Rights Reset"

Else

Debug.Print "< Rights default"

End If

End Sub

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Reset permissions on outlook folders using VBA