In design, they say space lets layouts breathe. Well, in filenames, it makes me choke on that Apple.

If you can’t hang with the filenames that Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and 10.7 (Lion) generate when you do screen captures, here’s the multi-step process to turn the unfashionable “Screen shot 2011-07-05 at 5.38.53 AM.png” into a humble but stylish “screenshot_2011-07-05_05.38.53.png“.

1. Change the date format to 24 hours, if applicable, by customizing the Medium times format under System Preferences > Languages & Text > Formats > Times > Customize > Medium. ¹
2. Run:¹
   

   defaults write com.apple.screencapture name "screenshot"

3. Edit the appropriate localization file as root (change English to your language):²

   sudo vi /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemUIServer.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Localizable.strings

   
   comment out the old filename template and replace with a new one:³
   

   /* Format screencapture file names */
   /* "%@ %@ at %@" = "%1$@ %2$@ at %3$@"; */
   "%@ %@ at %@" = "%1$@_%2$@_%3$@";

4. Restart the SystemUIServer:
   

   killall SystemUIServer

Footnotes:

1. Source: everydaymacsupport.com [↩] [↩]
2. Source: macworld.com [↩]
3. I tried "screenshot_%2$@_%3$@" but that didn’t work [↩]