P: Sort by more fields, sort by multiple fields

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Metadata fields provide an opportunity to liberate us from the difficulties of using the file system (filenames and directories) for sorting and searching. The Lightroom sort options should take advantage of this. I would particularly like to sort on the Title and Caption fields, and to use multiple sort criteria, as in Sort by Title and then by Capture Time.

[johnrellis]

As a workaround for this lack of functionality, the List View plugin will let you sort lists of photos by multiple fields: http://www.photographers-toolbox.com/...

[lagedor222]

Sorting
Having just switched to LR from iMatch (from PC to Mac) I was shocked and horrified to find LR cannot even do elementary sorting on (extended) IPTC fields. My shoots are of things that are presented in a particular order which may be significant (or not). These shoots can run into hundreds and sometimes even more than a thousand images; they are also spread out over time. I encode my objects using location conventions that are readily understood by others working in the same field (art history) and in order to tag this data and interpret it properly I need to be able to look at it in order. I would have thought this is pretty elementary but I have just learned that LR can only sort on fields that are of no interest to me at all (and somewhat superfluous in that files can be given names based on date and time). Ideally I would be able to sort on:
LocationCreated/Country
LocationCreated/City
LocationCreated/Sublocation
LocationShown/Sublocation (for location code)
Additionally, it would be very useful to be able to combine such sorts with one or more (hierarchical) keywords. In my case those that identify the object by type, because the same location can have different types of objects.

Since all of this info is already part of the database I find it incomprehensible that it cannot be put to good use. PLEASE implement decent sorting routines soon!

[therealgingernob]

Is it possible to add an additional sort feature to sort on megapixel size

[johnrellis]

I agree that it would be good if LR let you sort on additional criteria.  

If your ultimate goal is to identify pics that are too small or too large, you can use smart collections with the Megapixels criterion, e.g.

Megapixels < 3.0

A couple of other plugins provide a little more flexibility in filtering by megapixels, but if you want to produce a collection that is correctly sorted by megapixels (cropped or uncropped), see the Data Explorer plugin.

[Baffin]

LR current allows sorting of images by a single criterion, such as ordering by 'capture time' or 'filename' or 'rating'.

What happens if multiple photos have the same sort value, eg., rating? How are photos of the same sort value then 'sub-sorted'?

Typically this is handled by allowing multiple levels of sorting (eg., as Microsoft Excel does).

This would be even more valuable if LR supported sorting by any metadata field, eg., by title or GPS latitude or keyword-value (keyword-value pairs were supported, which I'll post separately as an idea).

Note that this could be implemented even in the current single-sorting-level paradigm by allowing sorting on values (-, 0, +) provided by user-defined scripts that would have read access to metadata. (The idea of supporting user-defined sort scripts was posted separately earlier.)

[Baffin]

I'd like to sort in Library by a metadata field that isn't offered in the Sort menu. Rather than asking for my favourite-of-the-day field to be added to the Sort, why not add the ability to sort by any metadata field, similar to the way LR allows filtering by any metadata field?

And/or, what about allowing sorting by a user-defined (via script?) function?

And/or by a user-provided query string.

(Extensibility makes products great/greater.)

[idsdi]

The sort by functionality in ligthroom is very limited and when exporting web libraries the order of the web library is dictated by the sort order in lightroom, hence managing large libraries that need to be regularly exported for web is very cumbersome...

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I shoot multiple exposure, and in LR, I will choose 3,4,5,6 exposures to combine to make one image. I'd really like to be able to sort my stacks by number of images in each stack


I'm sure I'm not the only person who does this, and it would really be a very useful time saving sort option

[sailinsteve5]

Can we get the ability to sort photos by dimentions in Lightroom CC. I'm using photos for a video presentation and need photos large enough to allow zooming in to show features. This is avaiable in Photoshop Bridge, but Lightroom is far more efficient at this. In the past, I believe that you've wanted to induce folks to buy photoshop, but now anyone with Lightroom CC also has photoshop anyway so no reason to cripple lightroom CC.

[pideja]

I want to sort my images by TITLE. Can this be done in Lightroom 4.4?

[widphoto]

Feature Request: Please add the ability to sort by Copy Name. Thanks.

[luchaut]

LR4 :I 'd like to sort out pictures by the gps tag or by location, directly in the library module.

[Geoff the kiwi]

Luc, nothing will be done with Lightroom 4 which has long finished.

[johnrellis]

Luc posted his reply 4 years ago, but it was just merged with this topic. Unfortunately, the Get Satisfaction software doesn't show the original date.

[Geoff the kiwi]

That is a bug!!! 😞

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

sorting grid images by their titles or captions would go a long way to allowing flexible arrangement of images for varied destinations.

[johnrellis]

Check out the List View and Data Explorer plugins -- they're a little less convenient but can get the job done.

[SRF_Audio]

Just adding to the chorus here: sorting by File Size. 
I switched over from Aperture, and was really disappointed to discover I can no longer do this basic search. 

If the data is available, it should be usable as a search/sort/smart criteria.

Lightroom is ultimately a database of photos with the ability to edit...so making that fully functional in the database side is crucial. 

[dedreiix]

I totally agree with this.
When I create HDRs out of pictures in a collection they are now added at the bottom of the collection instead of being sorted in within the other pictures. (The created date is even written in the new created file)

No big deal to implement.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

It seems to have been wanted for a long time. When will we be able to do a simple sort by title???

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

Hi Sarah, can you perhaps explain to the engineers how that would benefit your workflow? As you can imagine, there's a lot of prioritization that goes on, and really compelling workflow reasons do help give a request extra weight. You might also like to try to plug-ins mentioned above, as they can already sort by title for you.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

A quick Google shows that this has been a request on many forums since at least 2010. I'm not asking for new code - the sort algorithms are already there, just add an extra option to the menu.
In my case, I have a collection of images and I need to print a contact sheet in alphabetical order by title. Obviously, I have the title in the title field, so need to be able to sort on that. At present, I have to do this manually. I shouldn't have to pay a third-party for a plugin to add what should be standard functionality.

[Jimi Ferrara]

This ould make my wedding workflow SO much faster: I add keywords like "1-Prep, 2-Ceremony" etc... then view them in the order I want the categories to be in, then rename.  With multiple cameras and shooters, we shoot details throughout the day, but I don't want my clients and guests to be viewing portraits of the couple, then random table details.  I need them all in categories to present.  YES, I can make label texts, but it would be so much faster with a keyword I can add, then rename and number, then remove if need be.  

[Diego Ioppolo]

I'm really frustrated by the low range of options available for reorder photos in catalog and collections. Please add the possibility to reorder by Title and/or by Copy Name in order to create automatic custom orders without renaming the file or dragging up and down photos. 

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

How do I sort a mountain of images into say 1:1, 3:2, 4:5 and custom aspect ratios in Lightroom ? (Can only find a filter by orientation and cropped dimensions).

Is there a plugin that would even tack this information onto the filename ?

~ John