How to Rename an Icon in Mac OS X

Naming and renaming icons in Mac operating systems has always been easy, and OS X is no different. You can change the names of documents, videos, other files, folders and even disk drives with ease.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Locate the icon in your Mac OS X system for an item such as a file, folder or drive. It should be either on the desktop or in a folder that you'll open by clicking on it.

2. Click on the icon anywhere, wait a second or two, then click directly on the name. The name will appear in a text box completely highlighted. If you make the second click too soon, you'll just open the icon.

3. Begin typing immediately to replace all the previous text if you wish. You can delete the highlighted text first by pressing the "Delete" button, but this is not necessary.

4. Use the arrow keys to remove the highlight if you don't want the entire name removed. You can move the cursor across the text with the arrow keys and delete one character at a time.

5. Highlight the part of the text you want to delete. Move the cursor over the text, hold down the mouse button and scroll over as much text as you want to delete.

6. Press the "Enter" key or click on any part of the screen away from the icon after you finish typing the name. The icon's new name should stick.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure you are not giving the icon the same name as another. Even if the other icon is a different file type or a folder, it can't have the same name as another icon on the desktop or in the same folder.
• In newer OS X versions, a file's suffix won't be highlighted when you click on it. You can still delete the suffix if you wish by moving the cursor to it with the arrow keys.
• If you delete the full original name and then hit "Enter" without typing anything, the original name will return.
• Don't change a file's suffix. It can cause problems to the file.