Sorting in File List Window

[SeismicGuy]

When considering a new vacation highlights 'project" I create a main Project folder (with name of the project) and then subfolders.  One subfolder is usually contains Images/Videos, another subfolder contains the music I may want to use, another subfolder might contain special slides I have created that will somehow fit in the presentation.  The problem I always have with the Images/Videos folder is that the files come from a variety of sources--usually my Smartphone, my wife's Smartphone, our friends' Smartphones, my Fuji camera.  When bringing all of the files together into the subfolder they are often not in the correct order if trying to sort on "time taken".  This can occur since the photos from our friends' phones will end up with the date they were sent to my phone or computer or the date I may have downloaded from some common cloud site where we share the photos.  Also, the mpg video files are NEVER where they are supposed to be if trying to sort by date. 

I know there are probably some workarounds where you can fiddle with the timestamps or manually sort the files somewhere and then rename them all numerically ascending or some other way.  But it would also be nice to be able to move the images/videos around in the File List panel (similar to a Custom Sort that is available in a program like FastStone viewer).  Unless I am missing something I do not see a way of moving the thumbnails around in the File List panel but it would be nice.

[jkb]

you do know that you can sort the Filelist by Date or Exif Date.

See Settings/Filelist Sort Order.

Maybe this will help you.

The other option is to add all of the images/Videos into the Slidelist
The go to FullScreen View & move them into the order you want & delete those you don't want to use from the SlideList.

Jill

[rosy]

Hi SeismicGuy

I assume you know about the Lightbox type view where you can arrange slides to any order you want them to appear?  If you don't, there is a very small icon along the bottom R/H edge of your pte show, the second slide below says click here, the first shows the view you get, to go back, click it again.

Rosy.

[jkb]

Hi Rosy,

What you are showing is for the Slidelist Fullscreen which you can rearrange.

SeismicGuy wants to be able to rearrange the Filelist, which you cannot do.
You can get Fullscreen Filelist view by using F3 or clicking on the Triangle at the top of the screen (once you have enabled it in Preferences/Toolbar)

Jill

[rosy]

Hi Jill

Let's see what he says.

Rosy.

[SeismicGuy]

17 hours ago, jkb said:

Hi Rosy,

What you are showing is for the Slidelist Fullscreen which you can rearrange.

SeismicGuy wants to be able to rearrange the Filelist, which you cannot do.
You can get Fullscreen Filelist view by using F3 or clicking on the Triangle at the top of the screen (once you have enabled it in Preferences/Toolbar)

Jill

Yes exactly.  Also I sometimes later want to add photos or other things to the folder and would like to move things around in the Folder list view

[jkb]

Sorry this is not possible, you can only move things around in the SlideList.

Jill

 

[jt49]

Maybe a possible workaround : Create a separate PTE-project (call it Pool). Drag all objects from your image/video folder(s) into this project. Go to the full screen view of the Pool's slide list. There you can arrange things as you like it. You can also remove objects without deleting the original files. And you can use copy and paste to transfer things from the Pool to your real project.

[SeismicGuy]

The only "foolproof" workaround is to first get all images/videos into some folder somewhere.  Sorting on exif or date taken/created will almost never quite work for a number of reasons and I have always found the MP4 files never end up in the right place anyway mixed in with jpg.  So using a program like FastStone Viewer you can first sort on date if you like and then manually move around the incorrectly sorted images to fit in the proper sequence.  This creates a "custom sort" and the next time you open FastStone the custom sort is automatically applied.  FINALLY you can use the Batch Rename tool to add something like "Image ###_" to the name of each and every image so you end up with Image 0001_Original Name, Image 0002_Original Name, etc.  Then when you open that folder in PTE AV sort the File List window on Name and there you have it.  The key to this organization is doing everything first outside of PTE to create the properly sorted folder and then transition to PTE.  

This all became obvious to me when I had initially put all of the jpg's and mp4 files I wanted into a folder and opened it in PTE.  As I was dragging down images into the slides many times they were correctly sequential in the File List window but sometimes I had to go to the very last thumbnails to find those images that had been obtained from another device or from a shared cloud site.  

 

 

[jt49]

Maybe foolproof, but IMO a bit cumbersome (whatever the correct word may be)

[SeismicGuy]

49 minutes ago, jt49 said:

Maybe foolproof, but IMO a bit cumbersome (whatever the correct word may be)

Yes cumbersome but at some point you will likely need to properly sort items and it would be most convenient doing within the program