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Photo Mechanic code replacement generator
Paste a roster, choose a caption style, and download a code replacement file for Photo Mechanic. Type =h12= in a caption and it becomes “Riverside Hawks guard Maya Ortiz (12)”. Free, no account, nothing uploaded.
Build the file
0 codes ready
Paste a roster above, or fill in the sample, to see the file.
Tabs are shown as → in this preview. The downloaded file uses real tab characters, as Photo Mechanic requires.
How code replacements work
Sports captions repeat the same long strings hundreds of times a game: team, position, full name, number. A code replacement file lets Photo Mechanic expand a short code into that string. The file is plain text: one code per line, then a tab, then the replacement. Extra tab-separated columns hold alternates, chosen with #2, #3 and so on. Lines that start with // are comments.
Each line this tool writes has three replacements. =h12= is the full caption in the style you picked, =h12#2= is the name alone, and =h12#3= is the last name. A head coach gets the code hc. Give each team a different prefix so a number never means two players.
Getting the frames to the caption desk
Captions happen after the frames arrive. If you shoot with a camera that has an FTP menu, Camera to Anywhere receives each frame as it is sent and delivers it to a Mac folder, NAS, Dropbox, Google Drive or a gallery while you keep shooting, so the editor opens Photo Mechanic on files that are already there. Find your body in the camera FTP compatibility list.
Questions
- What is a Photo Mechanic code replacement file?
- A plain UTF-8 text file with tab-separated columns. The first column is a short code; the next columns are the text Photo Mechanic types in its place. Type =h12= in a caption field and it becomes the full player caption.
- How do I load the file in Photo Mechanic?
- Go to Edit > Settings > Set Code Replacements, add the downloaded .txt file, and keep its Enabled box ticked. Photo Mechanic reloads the file when it changes, so you can regenerate it mid-season and save over the old one.
- What do =h12#2= and =h12#3= do?
- A code can carry several replacements. The first column is the default. Every line this generator writes adds the player’s full name as replacement #2 and their last name as #3, for second references in a caption.
- Is my roster uploaded anywhere?
- No. The file is built in your browser. Nothing you paste leaves the page, and there is no account or email address to give.
- Which code delimiter should I use?
- Photo Mechanic’s default delimiter is the equals sign, so the codes here are letters and numbers only. If you change the delimiter to a single quote on a Mac, turn off Smart Quotes first.
File format checked against Camera Bits’ Introduction to Code Replacements, October 2026. Photo Mechanic is a trademark of Camera Bits, Inc.; this tool is not affiliated with Camera Bits.