Order of photos changes when moved to PSG

[hcajones Profile Private message]

Thanks for all the thoughtful responses.

I want to make sure I understand what it is I should do that might help solve the problem. I'm not very literate technically about how the systems work, so my focus is on avoiding the problem in the first place.

If I name the first photo 100, then 110, then 120, etc. and never use a number below 100, will that prevent the problem?

If I do that but I have enough photos in a folder that if I start with 100 I will end up with numbers of 1000 or above, would that then create a problem?

Thanks.

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Just make sure all your numbers have 3 "places." For instance, 001 has three places as does 010 and 100. You'd number your photos like this:

001
002
003
.
.
.
010
011
012
.
.
.
and so on up to 999.

Of course, if you want over 999 photos ( ), then instead of 3 places, you'd want 4 places, starting off with 0001 so you could potentially number the photos up to 9999.

Barbara

[briancbb Profile Private message]

Just to expand on what Barbara has said, and to allow you to 'insert' photos into the sequence I would number them as follows. This should always work.

010
020
030
040
.
.
.
980
990

If you want to insert a photo between 030 and 040 number it 035.

Note: this only allows 99 photos in the show, plus those inserted.

To get more they could be numbered in multiples of 5, or as 4 figure numbers 0010, 0020, etc which then allows 999 photos plus inserted. By the way this is what I do, 4 figure numbers increasing in 10's.

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

I remember one time when I ended up grouping the photos by placing A, B, C, etc. in front of numbers. All the A's went in a specific section, all the B's in another, and so on. That's another thing to consider when doing large shows.

Barbara

[heckydog Profile Private message]

I did some research and I made some interesting discoveries.

Windows Explorer in W7 does indeed sort, by default, numerically. So I was wrong about that. However, prior to Windows 2000, Explorer sorted literally, the way I thought W7 still sorted file names today. I never paid much attention to that because I always assumed W7 sorted literally and I always used the xxx or xxxx format to number things in general, not just photos, but any list of things.

It appears that ProShow still sorts literally and that is why you often see a difference between Explorer and ProShow. The solution is, of course, to use the xxx, or xxxx, or xxxxxxxxx format, depending on how many photos you have to rename.

But . . . . .for those who are interested, it is possible to change the default sorting algorithm in Explorer from numeric to literal, or alpha if you prefer that name. It's only mildly confusing to do it so instead of explaining how to do it, I have provided a link to a page that explains how to change the Local Group Policy. Crikey, who knew this stuff even existed, right!!

http://maximumpcguides.com/windows-7/tu ... -explorer/

If you make this change, then the sort orders in Explorer and ProShow should always agree. But don't forget, this change also applies to any sort you do for any other program.

So, is Photodex wrong for using the literal algorithm for sorting? Good question, I'll let others debate that. I suppose they should change it since most folks are using newer versions of Windows which defaults to numeric sorting, and 99.998% of people are not aware it can be changed. (Those of you who read this far are now part of the .002%

I also think they should add an option in the file list to be able to add a "Date Created" column. If that was available, it would let people add photos from multiple cameras and be able to sort them all by date. As long as the cameras were set to the same date and time.

Joe

[briancbb Profile Private message]

Thanks for finding that link Joe.

I can now join the minority .002% in this world. Well for a short time when I can remember where to find this link.

I was certainly one of the people who did not realise that the sort order had been changed, (by the way it is numeric in Vista as well as W7) until Barbara pointed it out. I guess you can call me 'old school' or 'out of date', but I am quite happy being here.

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

One more for the .002%, but would I change Explorer back to the literal system? No, sirree. I'll be darned if I'm going to go back the good old days.

Barbara