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How to save custom order

Explorer ,
Apr 27, 2021 Apr 27, 2021

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I've got a catalog wth 500 images that I have pulaced into a custom order/arrangement. Is there any way to save this particular ordering? I want, for example, to resort the view based on a few things, such as file type of Added order, then return to the ordering I've created. Would a Smart Collection save the order, for example? (I don't want to try it to find out ;-)) Thanks for any help.

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Community Expert ,
Apr 27, 2021 Apr 27, 2021

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The only way I've found the guarantee the order is kept is to rename the images using a sequence number at the end such as "my-photos-001.jpg"

 

wish there was a robust function for this myself. 

Good luck!

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Explorer ,
Apr 28, 2021 Apr 28, 2021

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Thanks much, but in this case, that's not really an option. We need  Save Sort Order function. So simple. 

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Community Expert ,
Apr 28, 2021 Apr 28, 2021

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Custom Order is "saved" when you create it, and it remains set that way until you change it again, and switching back and forth between the various sort orders will have no effect on the set custom order. But you need to be careful that you don't inadvertently (or forgetfully) drag a thumbnail into a different place in the grid while using one of the non-custom sorting orders, as that will reset the previously set Custom Order into the new order that you just created by dragging that one thumbnail into a different position.

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Explorer ,
Apr 28, 2021 Apr 28, 2021

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Well I spent about four hours yesterday getting the catalog into the custom order so that my slideshow would run in the desired sequence. I had to jump into another catalog to retrieve some images and I changed the sort order in that catalog to Capture Time. When I returned to my slideshow catalog, it had reordered all the images into Capture Time and my custom, well-planned, precision, carefully conceived, desired order was gone. I don't see any way to switch back to the custom order, but if you know of one, please tell me. Much obliged in any event.

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Community Expert ,
Apr 28, 2021 Apr 28, 2021

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I repeat: the only way I've found to save a Custom order is to rename the files in a sequential pattern so that, as Jim warns: "But you need to be careful that you don't inadvertently (or forgetfully) drag a thumbnail into a different place in the grid while using one of the non-custom sorting orders, as that will reset the previously set Custom Order into the new order that you just created by dragging that one thumbnail into a different position."

 

This is a long standing fail in LRC and hopefully, one of these days, will be addressed. Until then, rename away, it's the only way.

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Explorer ,
Apr 28, 2021 Apr 28, 2021

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I get it. But as mentioned, renaming all the files is not an option at this point. And Jim mentions that the custom order can be accessed and moved away from, but that failed on my system. 

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Community Expert ,
Apr 28, 2021 Apr 28, 2021

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How are you trying to use it? You mentioned switching between "catalogs" earlier, though I guess that's not what you meant. You can set a Custom Order for a collection or any sub-folder, which are you using? You can switch between the various sort orders (including Custom Order) when in the Library module by using the Sort drop-down list on the Toolbar, and whichever order you select there will be how the images are ordered in the Slideshow module. You can set or change a Custom Order the Slideshow module, but you can't switch the order from say Capture Time to Custom Order, you'd have to switch back to Library and change the sort order there.

 

Renaming is an option if you feel prone to inadvertently messing up the Custom Order, but I've never found the need to do that. YMMV.

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Explorer ,
Apr 28, 2021 Apr 28, 2021

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By Custom Order I mean the order into which I dragged each individual of
the 500 files so that a Slideshow would play in the sequence of images that
I am after. So the idea is to put the files in/drag them into the order I
want them to playback in the slideshow in the sequence- the ultimate goal
(MOV file). I spent hours yesterday doing this, then realized I needed a
few additional files from my superset catalog, loaded that catalog, sorted
it by Added Date (I needed to grab a few more of the most recent files to
add to the slideshow/catalog), then when I reloaded my 500/slideshow
files/catalog, they too were in Added Date order and all the work I did was
lost.

I normally work in the LIbrary, and in this case, I had made physical
copies of the 500 I needed out of the superset catalog and put them all
into a single folder, which allowed me to drag and drop them into the order
I needed to appear in the Slideshow That was a major mistake. Is there
some working method whereby I can drag and drop my files again and have
that order retained for perpetuity, no matter what other catalog or Sort
order I might enable in the intervening period? I'd [refer nt to do this
more than one additional time... Thanks for any info.

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Community Beginner ,
Apr 28, 2021 Apr 28, 2021

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I've saved custom order by exporting files using "sequence" inserted as the first field. The one-up-numbering works.

Regards - Don Dement==================

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Explorer ,
Apr 28, 2021 Apr 28, 2021

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Yes - thanks. I think that will do it.

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Community Expert ,
Apr 28, 2021 Apr 28, 2021

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The key is to pay attention to both the current source — which can be a single folder or single collection — and the current sort setting. Each source (folder or collection) does save its own Custom Order and as Jim said, as long as you have not changed that, it actually is saved.

 


@dennishmiller wrote:

I don't see any way to switch back to the custom order, but if you know of one, please tell me. Much obliged in any event.


 

In the Library module, a menu in the toolbar tells you which sort order is active, and one of the choices is Custom Order. That is where your custom order is saved. If you found it was set to Capture Time, switch it back to Custom Order and you should get back the last Custom Order that was set for that source. If the toolbar isn’t visible, choose View > Show Toolbar or press the T key.

 

Lightroom-Classic-Custom-Sort.jpg

 

The reason I said to pay attention to the selected source is that each source can have a different sort order setting. So if you tried to “come back” to a sort order but it is different, maybe you didn’t actually return to the same source. For example, maybe you were creating a Custom Order in a particular collection or folder, and when you came back it was to a different collection or folder which was set to Capture Time. A slide show is based on the current source.

 

If you want a certain Custom Order to stick, it’s a good idea to create and name a specific collection before sorting. Then you always know that collection has a custom order. I would definitely create a named collection for a slide show.

 

When you say you “sorted your catalog,” that’s why we’re saying to use more precise terminology because you can’t actually do a custom sort on the entire catalog (manual ordering is not allowed in the All Photographs collection, for example). So you must have been doing it in a more specific soruce.

 

By the way, it is definitely useful to lock down a sort order by hacking the filename (batch renaming with a Sequence Number added to the start of the filename). But you must be sure you will never change the order again, because if you do, it is not easy to renumber already-sequenced filenames in Lightroom Classic; you basically have to rename each one individually by hand in the Metadata panel. This is because Lightroom Classic batch file renaming is not powerful enough to do something like drop the first 3 or 4 characters of a filename and replace them with new characters. The only things you can do with the current batch renaming feature is add a new set of sequence numbers at the front without changing the old ones, or completely rename the files without using any of the previous filenames. (I keep hoping Lightroom Classic will add a proper batch renaming feature.) There are very powerful file renaming utilities out there, but if you run them on the original files Lightroom Classic will completely lose track of them all…which is why Lightroom Classic needs more powerful batch renaming features inside the application itself.

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Explorer ,
Apr 28, 2021 Apr 28, 2021

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Thanks for the info. Very helpful.

I have again rearranged all the files and will now save everything as a Collection, but do I use Collection, Smart Collection or Collection Set in order to have the custom order/arrangement I created maintained and reacessible (for example, if I want to Sort by Filenmae on this same set of images then return to my custom order)? 

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Explorer ,
Apr 28, 2021 Apr 28, 2021

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Update. I am working in a Folder when I rearrange the files. I created a Collection, Collection Set and Smart Collection  after selecting all of the files in the Folder, and all three of those rearranged the files using some sort order other than mine. The Folder instance maintains the custom ordering, but all of the others put the files into Capture Time, for reasons that I am unlclear on. Thankfully, the Folder still has the results of today's 3 hours of work... I really can't lose this ordering, so I think the Folder is where I need to be, always. 

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Community Expert ,
Apr 28, 2021 Apr 28, 2021

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You should in general first create a collection before sorting your images for a slideshow. If you already sorted in a folder then you can still create a correctly sorted slideshow. When in your folder and in the slideshow module, hit the "create saved slideshow" button. This will generate a new collection that  has the right sort order and that has all your slideshow settings saved as metadata in the special slideshow collection.

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Community Expert ,
Apr 28, 2021 Apr 28, 2021

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@dennishmiller wrote:

The Folder instance maintains the custom ordering, but all of the others put the files into Capture Time, for reasons that I am unlclear on. Thankfully, the Folder still has the results of today's 3 hours of work... I really can't lose this ordering, so I think the Folder is where I need to be, always. 


 

Custom Order is allowed and preserved for a Folder or a Collection, but not allowed for Collection Sets and Smart Collections. So if you want to be able to manually rearrange and have that Custom Order be available, it has to be done in a Folder or Collection.

 

The restriction of Custom Order to Folders and Collections might be because of the different functions of each source type:

  • Folder directly maps to a specific folder on the storage volume, so the only items you can use and sort are the items in that actual folder, nothing outside of it.
  • Collection is a virtual list that can contain items from multiple folders and a Custom Order for them, which is what makes Collections so useful for sequencing projects like slide shows, books, and exhibitions.
  • Collection Set is a group of collections. Maybe the reason a Custom Order can’t be saved for a Collection Set is because it’s a composite list of the images in all of the collections of the set, so a custom order would easily be lost as soon as images are added or removed from any collections inside that set.
  • Smart Collection is a virtual list based on criteria, like a saved search. Maybe the reason a Custom Order can’t be saved here is that a Smart Collection is dynamic, always subject to change when either the criteria are updated, or when editing images causes them to match or fail to match the criteria. This potential for the image list to change at any time would wreck a Custom Order rather quickly.

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Community Beginner ,
Apr 02, 2023 Apr 02, 2023

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Really good question, I have wondered about this very same problem as well. Here is one solution I found: Lightroom allows you to sort your pictures by "Label text". So, what I did was to add label texts 000 ... nnn to my pictures, in the order in which I want them to appear in the collection or folder. Now I can go back between different sort orders like file name, label text, etc., without losing ordering I created by labelling the pictures.

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New Here ,
Jul 25, 2023 Jul 25, 2023

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Hi, I really like this idea. Is there a way to do this sequential numbering automatically? 

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Community Expert ,
Jul 25, 2023 Jul 25, 2023

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Select photos, choose Library > Rename Photo, and build a filename template that includes a sequence token at the beginning, so that when sorted by Filename, the numbers at the beginning of the filenames determine the sort order. It will number them based on the current order, so be sure to set a custom order before batch renaming. If you save the template as a filename preset, you can re-use it in the future to rename more batches of photos.

 

In the example below, the file’s original name was house.RW2, and the filename template is going to add a two-digit sequence number and a hyphen to the beginning of the filename.

 

Lightroom-Classic-Filename-Template-Editor-Sequence-Filename.jpg

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Explorer ,
Jul 25, 2023 Jul 25, 2023

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Thanks. Been a cupla years since this was an issue.
d.

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New Here ,
Jul 26, 2023 Jul 26, 2023

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Thanks for the information, but I would still be interested in a mechanism
that avoids the permanent renaming of files.
hjz04 mentioned the use of sorting by "label text" and I'm curious what the
workflow for this would be.

While renaming the RAWs sounds like a robust way of saving a Custom Order
sorting, I don't know what the effect would be on other catalogs that use
the same (now renamed) RAW files, previous catalog backups, etc.

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Community Expert ,
Jul 26, 2023 Jul 26, 2023

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Yes, @jappiee91413758, I completely agree with you.

 

Some time back, I used the "rename the files" approach to organizing the files in a Catalog — it worked very well for that catalog but played havoc with the files in the original folder.

 

I so much wish we could save a custom order in a catalog. You'd think that with the database within Lightroom Classic, it could "remember" the order of the files and that one could make any number of saved order settings.

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Community Beginner ,
Aug 14, 2023 Aug 14, 2023

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Hi @jappiee91413758 , this is what I did to get a custom order: Let's say I want an alternate order of the pictures in an album. First, I make sure that the "Label" appears in the "Metadata" section of Lightroom in the Grid module. If it doesn't, click on the "Customize" button at the bottom of the metadata and add the label (under Basic Info). Now I select the first picture in my alternate order and enter 001 as the label. Then on with the second picture, labeled 002 and so on. Now, when I choose "Label Text" as the sort order of my album, the pictures show in the order I wanted. I can now flip back and forth between other sort orders and my custom order.

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