Exporting custom sorted photos - how?

[kvolt]

I have 95 photos I want to use for a slide show. The win11 explorer will not let me custom sort them. I used XnView MP to sort the photos as I want. Now I need to export them without losing the sorted order to PhotoStage, a slide show app. Every time I export, the sorting is redone with respect to name, date, etc. rather than my custom sort. I tried to batch name them, 001, 002,003... but it says "The files cannot be renamed, an error occurred". What can I do? Thank you.

[jkm]

Welcome to the forums...

I'll try and help you, but your question is a bit vague as to what you are actually doing...

Every time I export, the sorting is redone with respect to name, date, etc. rather than my custom sort.

What do you mean by "custom sort"? Have you literally used XnViewMP's "Custom Sort" option (View->Sort by->Custom), and then dragged images around arbitrarily so that their final order has nothing to do with anything other than the position you dragged them to? I'll assume that's what you mean. (You might have meant sorting by some criteria or tag that Explorer doesn't allow but XnViewMP does.) But if you were manually dragging them to order them, you could have just done that in Photostage.

"Export" how? As what?

Are you trying to export a set of image files with their original name but sorted in the "custom" order ? That doesn't do anything, as they will just be sorted by whatever processes them next.

Or are you trying to export a list of files, a text file that can then be imported in Photostage?

Or are you trying to rename files to reflect your custom sort order?

It sounds like you might be trying to use "Batch Convert" to copy and rename files in a single step. In theory that might seem like it would work, but but it practice it does not work efficiently. When you select "Batch Convert" the dialog itself sorts the input files, and it will not honor "Custom Sort"; only parameter-based sorting using standard columns can be used. I suspect this is what you mean when you say "sorting is redone" but this is not the Export function, it is Batch Rename. (XnViewMP has an actual function named "Export" but that is different and won't help you.) You can manually rearrange them inside the Batch Rename to get the order you want, but that is only temporary and makes you re-do your sort every time. So it's not a good approach.

I don't have a copy of Photostage to test, but here are some things you can try...

First, just have the XnViewMP Browser showing your files in the order you want, whatever that is.

Then you can try any of these approaches:

1. Drag and drop the files from XnViewMP's window to Photostage's. Photostage accepts drag and drop. I don't know if it will preserve the order properly. You might try selecting the files in reverse order with a shift click, so the last file you click on is the first one in the list.

2. Create a list of files, in the correct order:
Select all the images, then do Tools->Slideshow. Click the Filelist tab, and you'll see your files in the order you gave them. Click the Save button, and give the file a name. You've now saved the listing as a slideshow file. The resulting .SLD file is just a text file. I don't know if PhotoStage can read it directly, but if you edit the file, at the bottom is an ordered list of your image files with the full path. Save just that part as a text file and maybe Photostage can do something with it.

3. Another way to create an ordered listing: You can also select the files, then use Tools->Create File Listing to create a text file listing of the files, in whatever format you need. The files will appear in the list in the order you have them in the Browser.

4. If Photostage can't handle any of these approaches, then you can give it actual image files named in sequence order (001.jpg, 002.jpg etc). To do this we will rename files, like people used to have to do with very stupid MP3 players. You might want to make a copy of the files first and do the rename on that.
Select the sorted files, and the do Tools->Batch Rename. Ensure "Name template" is checked, and then in the entry field below that put this:
### {Filename}
No other checkboxes should be checked. Start and Step should both be 1. Look at the preview below, and you will see the files listed in your preferred order, with new names starting with 001 and so on. Click the OK button and the files will be renamed. The files names will still be recognizable but will sort correctly with a simple alphabetic sort.

Hopefully this helps...

Good luck.

[kvolt]

Thank you for your quick response. My problem is still unsolved, even using chatgpt and claude. Note that I am not an advanced computer person.
My number one priority is to get a custom sort of my 95 photos. The standard sorting every platform gives is with respect to dates, file names, creation date, size…etc. My sorting is completely independent of these, I may be able to do this within Photostage but 95 photos is cumbersome. Everything I have tried, it comes back to sorting with respect to the usual parameters, never custom, except maybe within Photostage and Xnview mp, but as soon as you come out of that program (save file for example) it reverts out of my custom sort.
I just want my file custom sorted and importable by Photostage or some other program.
Answers: 1- I tried drag and drop from Xnview to Photostage, the sorting changes from custom to whatever, so no go. 2- I tried .sld and Photostage does not recognize it. 3- Does not work 4- Batch rename does not work, I keep getting "The files cannot be renamed, an error occurred" – that is why I wrote to the forum. Renaming the files one by one for 95 photos is pretty hard.
Thank you again. I would have thought a solution for custom sorting within windows 11 independent of these apps would be straightforward but maybe not.

[jkm]

I'm trying to help you, and I understand you’re not a computer person. But you need to be specific not vague in what you tell me, and chatbots can’t help you in a situation like this.

For example, #3 does work, to created a sorted file list, if you use it correctly. If you mean Photostage cannot import a text list, you might want to ask/complain about that to their support or forums, because that is a Photostage problem. Just saying it “doesn’t work” doesn’t tell me anything. (And if you don’t know how to use Create File Listing, you were certainly successful in creating one with #2; chop off the extra stuff at the top of the file with a text editor, and you have a list for Photostage to import, if it can.)

If #1 gets resorted in Photostage, that is a Photostage problem. When you drag and drop from the XnViewMP browser, the file references are passed in the order displayed in XnViewMP. If you see a different order in Photostage, it is Photostage resorting it afterwards, and you will have to raise it with them.

Have you asked on the Photostage support forum about how to import an ordered list of files for a slideshow, and what format would be required, or how to disable automatic sorting in their app when accepting drag and drop? That might be a good idea.

So all the rest of this is attempting to work around the Photostage problem with drag and drop…

Batch Rename works fine. You’re having some other problem. Make sure the files are not read only, and that you have permissions to rename them in Windows. If you can rename the file in Windows Explorer that’s a good test.

If you need more help, I suggest you do a screen recording showing your attempt to use Batch Rename (starting before you select Batch Rename, so we can see the files) and after you get the error, go to the folder in Explorer and rename a file, and post a link to the video.

We may be able to figure out by watching what’s going wrong for you.

[user0]

I tried to batch name them, 001, 002,003... but it says "The files cannot be renamed, an error occurred".

show screenshot of Batch rename