ReNamer:Sorting files
The order of items in the Files pane is important in two different cases:
- If you want to rename folders and their contents at once.
- If you want to give serial number to the file names by using the Serialize Rule
ReNamer has two different ways to sort the items:
- Manual sorting (one-time sorting);
- Automatic sorting (items are always kept sorted, newly added items get sorted automatically).
Manual sorting
To sort the items manually, select a group of items and use the files table context menu to move items up or down the list. Alternatively, you can drag the selection around the table using the mouse.
This is strictly one-time sorting. Newly added items will be placed at the end of the current list, in the order in which they are added.
Automatic sorting
To enable automatic sorting mode, left-click on the column headers of the Files pane. Items will be sorted by that column. Clicking on the same column again toggles the sorting direction. When automatic sorting mode is active, a 
(ascending order) or 
(descending order) appears in the column-header. Two examples are shown below.
| Sorted by Name in ascending order | Sorted by Created Date in descending order |
|---|---|
|
|
ReNamer allows you to sort files by any of the available columns. The default screen does not show all of these available columns. To see them, right-click on the column headers. A context menu shows the full list of available columns. Click on any row to toggle that column on/off.
If you would like to retains same sorting order on the next session, enable the "Remember sorting options" in the Settings.
Canceling automatic sorting
To cancel the automatic sorting, right-click on the column headers. A context menu appears (see the figure above). Select the Cancel sorting (last) option. Once you cancel the automatic sorting, newly added items will simply appear at the end of the current list, in the order in which they are added.
Sort using multiple columns
If you want to sort files using multiple columns, then you will need to apply the sorting in several steps, one column at a time, starting from the least dominant and ending with the most dominant column.
For example, let's say you want to sort your files by their folder name but sort all files within each folder by the modified date. To achieve this you will need to sort by the modified date column (least dominant) first and then by the folder name column (most dominant). The sorting order from the first step will be maintained in the second step for items that are sort-wise equal, i.e. in the same folder.
Preserving the original order
Sometimes you have already ordered items (e.g. in Windows Explorer), and you want ReNamer to preserve that order. To do that, turn off the automatic sorting first, and only then add items to ReNamer.
Keep in mind the following quirk of Windows: When you are adding your selection, you must focus on the top (first) item in the selection, otherwise the same order will not be maintained when items are transferred to ReNamer. For example: In case of drag-and-drop, you need to select all your files and drag the selection by the very first file.
Note: The initial list of items (files and folders) is processed in the supplied order, but if you are adding folders the content of folders will be added in order determined by the file system, because folders are automatically scanned for the contained items.