XP (or any software) lists (sorts or opens) files in numerical/alphabetical
order.
If you open a folder and move the thumbnails and then close the folder and
open it again, the files will be back in numerical/alphabetical order.
Moving thumbnails around does not change the name of the files.Same thing if
you copy them to a CD, they will be in numerical/alphabetical order.
So, if you want to keep the new order of your thumbnails, you need to rename
the files. You can do this easily with XP as given below.
I have previously written about organizing photos (placing photos in the
order you want for a slide show or copying to CD) using XP batch renaming
function so you can place groups of photos in order and find them easily, as
well as organize your photos within a group (or a folder). Using XP, you can
add (1) at the end of the first file of a group of selected files when
renaming. This procedure has been well received in this newsgroup and many
comments came my way about using it. One comment came from Helmut Mack on
10/25/04 and he suggested using (101) instead of (1) after the file name. A
very clever idea. So I will now incorporate his suggestion here, changing
from (1) to (101) and also tell you why (101) is better than (1).
If you need to batch rename and number photo files in the order you want,
you can do this easily with XP.
Make a new folder on your hard drive. You can also make a new folder under
"My Pictures" if you prefer.
Name the new folder something easy to remember and search for: year, month,
day, event, separated by underline. For example:
2004_09_16_Summer Vacations
(Note: All your photo folders should be named like this. If not, right click
on each photo folder you have and click on Rename on the opening menu and
type such info to replace what you have, otherwise you will soon be lost to
find where your photos are located. We remember year and month when photos
were taken, so you want your photo folders listed in this order. Not Summer
Vacations, Easter, Christmas at the beginning of the folder name, you want
this after the year and month and even day. Storing by subject is not a good
idea, because this is not the way we remember things, add the subject after
the year....).
Copy the photos you want to place in a particular order into this new
folder. You can copy photos to this new folder from any photo folder you
have to make a new collection.
Once the photos are copied in this new folder, open the new folder. Hold the
Ctrl key down and press the letter A. This will select (highlight in blue)
all the files in the folder.
Right click on the first file (important to right click on the first file
because renaming will start from there).
Click on Rename on the opening menu.
Type in the name you want, to replace the current name of the first file.
Any system will work, such as year, month, day, event. For example type in:
2003_09_16 Virginia Beach Vacation (101).jpg
and press Enter.
XP will automatically rename all the files in this folder: 2003_09_16
Virginia Beach (101), (102), (103), etc. and they will open (sorted or
listed) in the order (101), (102), (103), etc. If you copy them to a CD,
this order will be maintained.
Two important things when renaming using the above method.
1. Look at the name of the above file, you must include a space between the
last character of the file name and (101)
2. When you rename, don't forget to add .jpg after (101). If you forget, XP
will warn you, so enter .jpg after this warning. If you don't, you will not
be able to open the file. If you still do not enter .jpg after the warning,
don't worry. Rename again and enter .jpg
You can rename any time and as many times as you want. You are not dependent
on the camera wizard to rename.
You can rename groups of files in a folder (in the example above, the date
can be 16, 17, 18, etc for each day of your vacation) just select the group
of files you want and right click on the first one in the group and rename
from there. For each group you select, just add (101) after the name you
want for the first file in the each group. So, you can rename as you want:
2003_09_16 Virginia Beach Vacation (101).jpg for all photos taken on the 16
2003_09_17 Virginia Beach Vacation (101).jpg for all photos taken on the 17,
etc,
You simply select all the photos taken on the 16th and rename, etc.
You can do even better than this. Suppose you want a slide show and you want
the last three pictures taken on your vacation to be the first three or in
between some other photos, or re-order the photos in a folder in any way.
Easy to do. Open the folder in thumbnail view, use your mouse to place the
thumbnails in the order you want. Select all the photos and rename starting
from the first picture adding (101) to the name you want for the first
picture. The (101), (102), (103), etc will be added automatically in the
order you placed the thumbnails. They will stay in this order if you copy to
a CD because XP lists (or sorts) by file name only on a CD.
If you have many pictures in this new folder and all you want is to order
them in chronological order, moving thumbnails in the correct order is
tedious. Let XP do this for you. Change the View from Thumbnails to Details.
In the Details view, right click on the column header "Name". This will open
a list. Click on More at the bottom of the list. A list will open, check the
box "Date Picture Taken". This will add the column Date Picture Taken in
the Details view. Then you click on the column header "Date Picture taken"
and XP will now change the list of files (the order of the listed files)
from the name of the files (the default) to listing files in chronological
order. Now, change the View to Thumbnails and they are in chronological
order. Select them, rename them using the above procedure and you are in
business.
Convenient if you want to make a slide show of pictures from different
folders. Just make a new folder, copy the photos you want in the new folder,
place the thumbnails in the order you want and rename.
You are not restricted to only one name (you use one name for one group of
picture, another for the next group, etc.) and you can control the order in
which each group will open, by placing a number up front of the file name
for each group. You may have photos of Christmas, Easter, New Year etc. and
of different years and you want them all together for a big slide show or
save them on a CD to send to friends. Make a new folder, copy them to the
new folder. Then, place the thumbnails in the order you want, select the
first group, right click on the first thumbnail in the group and rename:
1_2002 Easter (101).jpg
Then select the second group and rename
2_2002 Christmas (101).jpg
Placing 1_, 2_, etc in front will control the order of each group and (101)
controls the order within each group.
If you want to add another group later and you want the photos of this group
to be, say between 1_ and 2_, use 1a_ in front of the file name.
You may also want to add some more photos in a particular group at a later
time, say your Christmas group. No problem. Copy the files you want to add
in the folder, move the thumbnails in the group you want to add them to
where you want them. Select all the thumbnails in the group, right click on
the first one and rename. When you rename, you must change the name in order
for rename to take place. Add something like XYZ after Christmas. Once
renaming is done, select the same files again and rename again. Remove the
XYZ and you will be back to the original name.
Note: There is a disadvantage to changing the original name of files. This
is why I recommend at the start to make a new folder and copy your original
files in the new folder before renaming. The disadvantage is this. Many have
the option of video out from the camera to display the pictures from the
memory card to a TV for a slide show. If you change the file names and copy
the files back to your memory card to display on your TV (or even to just
look at them on the LCD of the camera) your camera will not be able to read
the files. You can always rename, using the same format (8 characters) that
your camera uses, but now you will have to rename each file and this is
tedious. So, be careful what you do with your original files.
Note: Although I recommend making a new folder and copying your files there
before renaming, there is also another way to do this and you may prefer
this once you are comfortable with renaming. Here is how to do it.
Open the folder to see your files. Hold the Ctrl key down and press the
letter A to select (highlight in blue) all the files. Hold the Ctrl key down
and press the letter C. This makes a copy of all the files to your
clipboard. Hold the Ctrl key down and press the letter V. This copies
(pastes) all the files back in your folder. The file names will be the same,
but the words "Copy of" will be in front of the file names. You then rename
Copy of files.
This way your original files and renamed files are in the same folder.
This is also very useful when you want to edit a photo with software. You
always edit "Copy of", never edit your original file.
Why use (101) instead of (1) after the file name?
XP lists (sorts) files by numerical/alphabetical order in a new way (the XP
way) from the "old way". If you use (1) everything will be fine if you use
XP to list files, but not with software using the "old way" and this will
include your DVD player to play your files on a CD to your TV or if you
upload the files to a web server.
You made the files (1), (2) (3), ...(10),... (20), ...(30), using the above
method. No problem. XP will display the files in this order. However, your
CD player or a web site will display them in the following order: (1), (10),
(2), (20), (3), (30). This is annoying.
If, instead, you made the files (101), (102), (103),...(110)..(120)..(130)
using the above method, these files will be displayed in this order on XP
and everything else. So, use (101) instead of (1) after the file name when
you rename.
This is fine for up to 999 files. If more than this, use (1001) and it will
be fine up to 9999 files, etc.
You can also use the free Irfanview software to batch rename, available
here:
http://www.irfanview.com/
All this renaming may seem a little complicated at first, but you can really
manipulate things very well by just sitting down and understanding the
system. With a little practice you can get what you want.
However, before renaming, make sure you make a new folder and copy some
photo files there so you can practice with no danger to your original files.
