Take heart. Once you get the hang of it, batch processing works pretty well. The first couple times out of the gate can be challenging, for sure.

My questions:
1. Why must I rename these in the first place?

You don't. Renaming is an option. If you don't want to rename the files, make no changes to the default choices (Document name, extension). That's what you'll get: Document Name.jpg or Document Name.psd or whatever format of the original file name.

2. [moot now that you can get around the rename obstacle]

3. How do I grab a folder of 2 photos and batch process them down to thumbnails?

If you literally mean a folder containing two images...
* Open any test image
* Create a new action
* Image > Image Size (size as needed)
* File > Save As... (specify any file name and folder... makes no difference) + .jpg specifications
* STOP recording
* Close test image. Keep or toss as needed.

Create a destination folder if you haven't yet.

File > Automate > Batch
* Source: Folder. Choose (navigate to the source folder) * Destination: Folder. Choose (navigate to the destination folder) * Important: Turn ON this option - "Bypass Action 'Save as' Commands." As bass ackwards as this sounds, the effect is to honor the .jpg settings and ignore the file name and folder recorded in the command. Files will be place in the destination folder, not the one recorded in the Save As... command (unless the folders are the same).
* Click OK to launch the process.

If you mean you have two folders and you want to process both at the same time, here's a couple more things you'll need to do before clicking OK:

* In folder 1 (the one specified in the Source/Choose dialog), include a shortcut that points to folder 2.
* In the File > Automate > Batch dialog, turn on 'Use all subfolders'. This way images from both folders will be processed in a single pass.

In case it makes a difference: Images will be processed in alphabetical file name order regardless of which folders they live in. For exaample:
* Folder 1: Able.psd, Dog.psd, Shortcut to Folder 2
* Folder 2: Baker.psd, Charlie.psd

The order of processing would be Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog.

Hope this gets you moving a little. Have fun.

~Danny~

JMF

Replied in the following topics

Batch Message won't let me Batch