Thank you, thank you.....yes at the moment it all seems a bit double dutch and confusing but I am sure as I work through it slowly I will understand. I really appreciate your help
----- Yves Alarie wrote: ----
Your DVD player cannot open photo files by date taken. Impossible. It wil
open files by numerical/alphabetical order and nothing else
You have a mess. Not your fault. XP has decided to list (sort or open) file
in a new way and told nobody about it
If the file names are alphabetical only, the XP way is the same as the ol
way. However, if the file name starts or end with numbers the XP way is no
compatible with anything else. Look at the following example
image 1.jp
image 2.jp
image 10.jp
image 20.jp
If you have these files in a folder, XP will list them in this order. If yo
load these files to a server or you have a DVD player read these files, thi
will be the order in which the files will be displaye
image 1.jp
image 10.jp
image 2.jp
image 20.jp
Quite different. You can also place the number in front of "image" instea
of at the end and the result will be the same
There is a way to get what you want, on both XP and your DVD player an
anything else by using the old way of numbering files
001 image.jp
002 image.jp
010 image.jp
020 image.jp
When numbering this way, XP, servers, DVD players etc. will all read or lis
these files in this order
You can do this renaming easily with batch renaming your files with the fre
software here
www.irfanview.co
Download the software, install it and then open it
Click on File on the top bar and click on Batch conversion/Rename on th
opening menu
Select all the files in the folder you want and click on the Add button s
the files are under "Input files" list
Click on sort files, date, ascending
Look at the files by clicking on each with the preview on. Use the move up
down, buttons as needed to change the order
Then click the "Set rename option" and change the default (image or ne
name) to a name you want and leave ### the same and then click start
New files will be added in your folder, your original file names will stil
be there also. The new files will b
image001.jp
image002.jp
etc
You can now copy these files to a CD or DVD disk and they will play in thi
order
If your head is not spinning by now, here is a bag of tricks to rename file
using XP. Just remember that if you use this, everything will work if yo
are using XP to list, open, sort etc. but it will not work on anything else
If you need to batch rename and number, you can do this easily with XP
Copy the photos to a new folder
Open the new folder. Hold the Ctrl key down and press the letter A. Thi
will select (highlight in blue) all the files in the folder
Right click on the first file (important to right click on the first fil
because renaming will start from there)
Click on Rename on the opening menu
Type in the name you want, to replace the current name. Any system wil
work, such as year, month, event. For example type in
2003_09_Virginia Beach Vacation (1).jp
and press Enter
XP will automatically rename all the files (1), (2), (3), etc. and they wil
open in the order (1), (2), (3), etc. If you copy them to a CD, this orde
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 th
last character of the file name and (1
2. When you rename, don't forget to add .jpg after (1). If you forget, X
will warn you, so enter .jpg after this warning. If you don't, you will no
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 portions of files in a folder, just select the group you want
and right click on the first one and rename from there.
You can do even better than this. Suppose you want a slide show and you want
the last three pictures taken to be the first three or in between some other
photos. Easy to do. Open the folder in thumbnail view, use your mouse to
place them in the order you want. Select all the photos and rename. The (1),
(2), (3), etc will be added in the order you placed the thumbnails. They
will stay in this order if you copy to a CD.
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 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. Once you have 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 (1).jpg
Then select the second group and rename
2_2002 Christmas (1).jpg
Placing 1_, 2_, etc in front will control the order of each group and (1)
controls the order within each group.
If you want to add another group later and you want these photos 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, say your
Christmas group. No problem. Copy the files in the folder, move the
thumbnails in the group you want to add them to. 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 have to rename each file. 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.
smallschoolie said:
I have taken numerous photos on a recent holiday. I copied them to CD as
a back up copy. I then tried to show friends through our DVD player on the
television. The photos all came up, but in alphabetical order rather than
date taken. I then tried to recopy them having changed the details so they
were viewed by date taken, however on the disc they still remained in
alphabetical order and when I tried to view them in date taken order it came
up as they were all taken on the same day.
I would appreciate it if anyone can help, so I am able to show a large
group of friends the photos taken on the television. Thank you.
