Sorting folder contents in Project Window

[Kren Bo]

I have a folder in the Project panel that contains 50 placeholders named 'Placeholder XX' where XX is the number 1-50.

Also in that folder are 50 jpegs which I named 'Placeholder XX_1' in the hope that each JPEG would be next to the relevant placeholder when sorted by name to make it quick and easy to drop each JPEGs into its placeholder.

But it appears that sorting by name doesn't achieve the desired result. It just lists all the placeholders 1-50 and then all the JPEGs 1-50.

After Effects CC 14.2.1.34 on Mac OsSierra 10.12.3

[Mylenium]

Nothing ominous here. That's how all sorting by name works - even at the operating system level. The overall length figures in just as much and hence shorter names are sorted first. if you really want to force a specific order, you have to use consistend name lengths and identical naming patterns.

Mylenium

[Kren Bo]

OK, so I've renamed all the JPEGs so they have exactly the same name as the placeholders but it still sorts all the placeholders numerically and then after that the JPEGs numerically. The only difference is the JPEGs have the .jpg extension. I was expecting to see something like:

Image_Video Placeholder 01

Image_Video Placeholder 01.JPG

Image_Video Placeholder 02

Image_Video Placeholder 02.JPG

But all I get is:

Image_Video Placeholder 01

Image_Video Placeholder 02

Image_Video Placeholder 01.JPG

Image_Video Placeholder 02.JPG

[Roei Tzoref · Accepted solution]

I hear ya. Ae's project panel naming order can be a pain. I filed a feature request a while back to make it better. numbers will always come first. meaning your naming convention will always get the 123 before the abc.

it does not work like the OS:

you can force it by making the numbers first like this

but of course it adds another complexity and manual work. it is not suitable if you are working with many files and just want to make one and duplicate for it to forward the number.

ask for a change here: Feature Request/Bug Report Form

in the meantime you will have to make do and resort to using folders or whatever systems you find that uses numbers.

[Kren Bo]

Hmmmm, not what I wanted to hear but at least it confirms that I wasn't just missing something obvious!

Quite frustrating but hey-ho, a bit of long-winded manual renaming never hurt anyone...I think! Thanks for your reply!