Slideshow images in wrong order

[photographer45]

I didn't have any troubles with the order of images in the old Pictures To Exe program, but since I downloaded the upgrade, I can't get the images to go in the order taken.

If I pull up the file folder (Windows XP Home), they are in the order taken (which means some of their numbers are out of order). When I create a new slideshow, however, nothing I do puts them in the proper order. The only thing close is doing it by file name, which means that periodically an image that was taken later on my digital card and which filled in a blank spot deleted from the card earlier, shows up in a bizarre spot. This is a problem for me, as I'm a wedding photographer and I put the images into a slideshow for the bride and groom. When I click on the option to display the pictures in the order taken, they just rearrange into a totally off the wall order of which I can make no sense.

Please give me a hand, if possible, to help me straighten this problem out.

[Ken Cox]

re number them in windows as to the order that you took them -- example

01_----

02_----

etc

do not touch the original part of the number

then put them in one at a time

ken

[photographer45]

Good suggestion, except that I'm usually looking at approximately 200 images per slideshow. With one or two slideshows per week, that would be extremely time-consuming.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why the problem has started only with the new upgrade. It used to work perfectly.

[JRR]

Photgrapher45:

There was a long discussion re sorting with the new versions of the program. I think they finally sorted (bad pun I know !!!! ) it all out, but not wanting to sort by time image was taken (I still shoot slides) I did not pay a lot of attention.

I suspect you can do a SEARCH on "sort" and find the thread quite easily. It went on for a few pages I think.

[Ken Cox]

proper record keeping in photogaphy is a must and time consuming but it must be done -- sorry that is not what you would like to hear

been there done that

ken

[nobeefstu]

photographer45,

PTE did change it sort order processing a little differently in the latest v4.11. There was a topic disscussion on this matter which implemented the sort change.

The change I believe was in the FILE DATE sorting. Is this the setting you used previously when your images sorted correctly in the previous PTE versions ?

I believe your image replacement process ... :

  ...  periodically an image that was taken later on my digital card and which filled in a blank spot deleted from the card earlier...

... is causing the new sort issue. Could supply the detail of what information is written /saved to identify the image file (name ,date, creation, time etc, etc.) ? and what changes occurr in the file information when moved into these deleted blank spots ?

[think(box)]

Photographer45 your problem is solved. PTE does now sort correctly in v4.10/4.11, but this is not what you need for your wedding photography. When the PTE sorting issue came up the following software was suggested at the time. I installed it and have been using it ever since. This software will adjust the file names of your photographic works by when the shutter snapped, as in by the EXIF data recorded with your picture in the image file at the wedding. When you edit a photo the file modified date may change, but not the EXIF data or file name. So if you've already edited photo files, as long as the EXIF data was preserved by your photo editing tools the file can still be processed by SetNameToTime. And of course if you have not edited the photo files they can be processed. Here is the link to the software (free for non-pros, so you can test then buy for pro work):

Click for Storck Software's SetNameToTime web page

Here are Storck's words about this product:

Why use SetNameToTime?

After using a digital camera for a while most people end up with a lot of jpg/tiff files.

The files can be kept in a lot of different folders. In that way you can find the right file,

and also avoid conflicting file names.

Another way of avoiding conflicting file names would be to use a file renaming tool.

That is what the author of SetNameToTime did once. The problem was that the

software renamed all files with no concern at all for their chronological order.

Having a few hundred files from a holiday renamed in a total random order was

no fun at all.

As every file has an EXIF (EXchangeable Image File) header with information about

the picture like the date and  time it was shot, the f-number, shutter speed and a

lot more, this information can easily be used to give the file a meaningful name.

For example the file could be given a name like:

2002-08-17--11-14-29.JPG (year-month-date--hour-minute-second.JPG)

Or just as easy:

saturday 17 august 2002 at 111429.JPG

[Truelight]

You could also use the freeware, Irfanview to sort your images by date/time taken and then batch rename them if needed.

-- Rick