What's a good strategy to preserve custom order for photos?

[BaliDave]

Wondering what's a good way to preserve the custom order of some photos I have, equivalent to creating an album in some other software.  I just spent a lot of time ordering some photos in a directory using the "custom" order.  If I create a special category for these fiile , the ordering I carefully set up in my folder gets "lost".  I don't want to copy or rename these files, but preserve them as they are but have a collection (or category or whatever) that has this order.  And later I could alter the order of the "album".

  I guess I could create a special attribute for this album and somehow get the current order into there for each file, but that sounds like it'd be hard to then later alter the order.  Is there some way to preserve this custom order (it'll be how these are shown) so it's later readily alterable (i.e. by moving pics around in File Window?  Or maybe I'm missing something?

[Mario]

IMatch allows you to re-arrange files individually per folder and category.
The custom arrangement of the files is stored inside the folder or category object.

A custom sort order created in a folder cannot be copied to a category. If you want to create custom orders for your files, categories are the best way because you have more control when and how files are added/removed from a category. This is what most users do and one of the benefits of having categories. In this situation, thing of categories as ways to create custom, even hierarchical, albums.

Setting up a sort order Attribute is another way to persist a custom sort order. Or just rename the files in the matching order, this way you also see the same order in Windows Explorer.

[Ger]

In the cases I want to see images in a particular order, I use an Attribute to store the sequence and I use this attribute in a custom sort order.

Ger

[Mario]

Its often easier to create a custom sort order by dragging files around in a category. Especially when you later want to change the order.

[BaliDave]

Mario, thanks -- that's real good to hear, as that wasn't clear to me that the custom order was per folder or category.  So I'll use that in the future.  Is the custom sort order hereditary in that child categories will inherit the parent's?

For my present case where the order was created in the folder, is there a way I can reuse the order I have for the new category (about 220 photos)?  Or is it easiest to re-create it by manually copying?  I don't see how to automatically sequence my current order with an attribute as Ger has done (maybe he did it manually?)

Anyhow I'm so impressed with all IMatch 5 is now (after years of IMatch 3.x experience) --  great, well-thought-out features/interfaces.  Thanks for all your GREAT work.

[Mario]

Is the custom sort order hereditary in that child categories will inherit the parent's?

No. Cannot work. A parent category virtually contains all files in it's child categories. See the IMatch help on custom sorts and categories for detailed information. The IMatch 5 help is really good and has tons of useful information for you.

There is no feature to copy a custom sort order tied to a folder into an arbitrary category. I see that such a feature would be helpful for you in this one-of-a-time situation, but I doubt it will be used more than once or by more than a handful of users. We would have a feature request for that already here in the Feature Request board. You can add one, of course.

[ubacher]

I also use an attribute to store the sort order.
Once I have the wanted order I run a script which stores the sequence number in this attribute.
(If I rearranged the files I also run this again)

If I want to get this sequence external to Imatch I copy the files and then run a renamer preset which
prepends the sequence number to the file name.

[BaliDave]

Seems like there is some general need to preserve custom orders in some sense, so perhaps a feature request is in order (npi).  For example, often, at least for me, I'll have several different versions of a showing of pictures, usually using the same ordering but different subsets of photos, e.g. a long "show", a short show (e.g. a preview), and perhaps another to put up on the web (and sometimes even more versions).  Now you have to write scripts and remember to carry them along, being careful not to reuse the ordering attribute you're using elsewhere.  I'd imagine the ordering would somehow be associated with some "attribute" of the files and tied to the order, but

Anyhow if I'm not too alone in this need or you have other comments/suggestions, please post or pm me and I'll do a feature request.

[Mario]

This is exactly the situation where you just setup one category for each of your 'Albums' (custom sort orders) and then arrange the files as you need them. That's what custom sort orders where designed for. No need for scripts or whatever.

[sinus]

I also use an attribute to store the sort order.
Once I have the wanted order I run a script which stores the sequence number in this attribute.
(If I rearranged the files I also run this again)

If I want to get this sequence external to Imatch I copy the files and then run a renamer preset which
prepends the sequence number to the file name.

I do exactly the same like ubacher.
Because that happens quite often, if I would create each time a category, then it would not more be that easy.

If this happens not often or you have always the same images, I would also create some categories.

[BaliDave]

@Mario:  But I usually want to keep the same order I originally set up, just with fewer pictures (or sometimes more).  For example the group I've ordered has a couple hundred photos in it that I've ordered as I want.  So that is in one category.  Now I'd like to create another category of 40-50 of some of the same photos, but using the same order discarding some of the pics, perhaps adding a couple, or even modifying the order slightly. But the original ordering is what I want to preserve in some form so it can be reused.  And I'd like to preserve both categories.

My problem is I don't see a way, short of scripting, to begin with the same order when I start working on another smaller (or larger) category from the one I've created.

[Mario]

Your requirements seem to be pretty special. Copying file orders from one folder to another or between categories. Never had a request for that, IMatch 3 did not have such a feature and IMatch 5 does neither. I suggest you add a feature request in the Feature request board here in the community and wee see how many users consider such a feature useful.

Implementing something like this will cost maybe one work-day (I can see no side-effects or pitfalls right now, but some may creep up during development, which may increase the time required). Plus maybe 3 hours for documentation and help updates. Plus the time required by the volunteer translators to translate all added or updated resources.

[sinus]

Hey BaliDave

If you make such a Feature request, I would support it for sure.

[BaliDave]

@ Mario, Ger, Ubacher, Sinus:  Thanks.  OK, I'll do that.  First let's see for a few days if any others have an interest here, and let me (and any others who want to pitch in) try to ensure the request covers what I and others really want, if it is to be implemented. I prefer NOT to add to your workload unless needed ;-)

Thanks,
Dave

[Mario]

I prefer NOT to add to your workload unless needed ;-)

Don't worry. There are currently about 250-300 open feature requests. I will run some polls and purges in the near future to weed out the 'only for me and right now' requests. This should leave a more relevant list of things to consider for future versions.

[sinus]

I prefer NOT to add to your workload unless needed ;-)

I will run some polls and purges in the near future to weed out the 'only for me and right now' requests. This should leave a more relevant list of things to consider for future versions.

I think, this is a very good idea.

[Ger]

Agree, good idea to critically review the feature request list.

Balidave wrote:

First let's see for a few days if any others have an interest here (...)

Probably good idea to post the feature request (referring to this thread as well) and collect comments in there - that's the place where Mario gets his to-do list after all!

Like Markus, I'm supportive of a way of documenting a custom sort order.

Ger

[BaliDave]

OK, I created a feature request for this -- see https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=4256.0

Feel free to correct/clarify/embellish this or ping me for more info.