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# Trim Filenames by Character Count

set userFolder to choose folder
set dialogResult to display dialog "Numbers of characters to remove:" buttons {"Cancel", "At beginning", "At end"} default answer 0 cancel button "Cancel"
set buttonResult to button returned of dialogResult
set numberOfChars to text returned of dialogResult as integer
if buttonResult = "At end" then set numberOfChars to -numberOfChars

tell application "Finder"
	repeat with eachFile in (get document files in userFolder)
		set fullName to name of eachFile
		set {textDelimiters, AppleScript's text item delimiters} to {AppleScript's text item delimiters, "."}
		
		if (count of text items of fullName) is greater than 1 then
			set properName to my Trim((text items 1 thru -2 of fullName) as text, numberOfChars)
			set newName to ({properName, (get last text item of fullName)}) as text
		else
			set newName to my Trim(fullName, numberOfChars)
		end if
		
		set AppleScript's text item delimiters to textDelimiters
		set name of eachFile to newName
	end repeat
end tell

on Trim(t, n)
	if n > 0 then
		return text (n + 1) thru -1 of t
	else
		return text 1 thru (n - 1) of t
	end if
end Trim