With IMatch, you have several ways to establish a certain file order.
You can use the Renamer to rename files in a way than ensures they are displayed in the other you want when you sort by file name, e.g. in a File Window, in Windows Explorer or elsewhere. This is quick and easy to do.
But what if you don’t want to change the file name? And instead display files sorted by Create Date or Date Subject Created, but the order in which the images were created does not exactly match the order in which you would like to present them?
IMatch TimeWiz
In comes the IMatch TimWiz. This is a very flexible tool for adding, shifting and correcting time stamps and time zone offsets in your files. For the topic of this post, the Time Sequence feature of the TimeWiz is especially useful.
The Time Sequence feature uses the time stamp of the first selected file and then applies the same time stamp, with a configurable number of seconds added, to each other selected file.
For example, if the first file has the time 10:00:00 and you select a sequence step of one second, the second selected file is set to 10:00:01, the next file to 10:00:02 and so on.
1. Establishing a Custom Sort Order
In the first step, you arrange the files in the order you want in a File Window using the Custom sort profile. This profile allows you to rearrange files in any way you want using drag and drop.
2. Applying the Time Sequence
Now select the files and run TimeWiz from the Tools menu or the Command Palette. Activate the Create Time Sequence mode and dial in the number of seconds to add to each selected file.
TimeWiz displays the date and time of the first selected file and previews how applying the Time Sequence will change the timestamps of the other selected files.
Click Apply when you are satisfied and TimeWiz persists the file order by updating the time stamps in the metadata.
You can now recall this specific order by sorting the files in an IMatch File Window by date and time. This of course also works e.g. in Windows Explorer, when you let it sort files by date and time.
