Question about sorting and categories

[ShardBot]

I'll try to explain in more detail.
For example, I have a category *Nature*. It has several subcategories, for example *Sea*, *Forest*, *Mountain*, *River*
How can I make that when I select the *Nature* category, the photos in it are sorted by specific subcategories, and not by date, size, etc. I did not find this function, sorting by subcategories.
The example is not very good, but I think it is clear. Correct me if I'm wrong somewhere, and I apologize again, I'm trying Xnview MP for the first time. I will be grateful for any help

[xnview]

Do you write category in metadatas?

[ShardBot]

Do you write category in metadatas?

Yes, I changed the category in IPTC, but I still don’t understand how I can sort a folder by subcategory

[michel038]

If you use hierarchical iptc keywords, ( Settings > Metadata > Write categories into images as hierarchical keywords ) ,
you'll be able to sort on keywords: View > Sort by > Show headers
Then In the browser, with a right click you can add/move/delete headers.
Then click on "keywords" header to sort photos by categories / subcategories.
Take also a look in detailed view ( View > View as > details )

But it seems that iptc hierarchical keywords are not widely used and not very standardised.
If you use xmp hierarchical keywords at the same time, the standardisation (Adobe! ) is better. (Settings > Metadata > Create XMP data)
However, XnViewMp does not offer a sorting function for xmp keywords.

[michel038]

A better solution:
View > Sort by > Show headers
View > View as > Details
Right click on a header and enable "Categories" in the list, in order to display this column.
If "categories" column is too far to the right, you can drag it to the left.
Come back to View > View as > Thumbnails + labels
Click on "Categories" header will sort photos.

A small bug remains, if some categories start with a capital letter, they will be displayed at the top of the list.