Controlling sort order of files added to books (Was Adding files to book results in reverse order)

[Oran Petersen]

As stated by Ian, to control sort order of files added to books, do not use the Frame "Add" Menu. Drag them from a Windows folder instead. Some more points: 

1. Make sure that the files are sorted in the folder as you wish them to be in the book. 

2. In the folder, click and shift-click to select a continuous set of files. 

3. With your mouse pointer over the TOP FILE (this is important), drag (hold down left mouse button) the files into your book and position the pointer exactly where you wish the file to add, if you have existing files in the book. 



If you wish to add a contiguous set of files, or omit some from the selected group, just control-click to deselect before you drag. You can also contiguously select files by just using control-click to select/deselect as you wish. You could use shift-click to select a group and control-click to deselect some in the group and control-click to add strays outside the group. 



If you do not position the pointer on the top file of the selection before you drag, the drag will sort the file under the pointer to the top, followed by those under the pointer, followed by those above the pointer from the top down. This is usually not what what you want, but who knows. 



Also, in the folde r, first sort by name, then sort by type. This gets you an alphabetical list of Frame files (.fm) all grouped together for convenience. 



If you wish a sub-set of Frame files that meet a certain criteria, you can use the Windows Search function to generate a result of the desired files. This is another way to filter out all but Frame files (search for .fm). One caveat; all selected files from the search must be in the same folder, not sub-folders, or the sort w ill fail. You can sort the Search window by "In Folder" to accomplish this. 



You can also drag files from one Frame book to another Frame book. Use control-drag to copy the files. A straight drag will move them from one book to the other. Sort order will be retained. 



I have added hundreds of files in one swoop using this technique, with perfect results. 



This technique works for all versions of Frame from 6 through 9 on Windows XP machines. Don't know about VISTA. 



Oran Petersen 


From: Ian Hawkins <ihawkins at sundorne.com> 
Subject: Re: Adding files to book results in reverse order 
To: Dustin Wilcox <dustin at wilcoxconsulting.net> 
Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com 
Message-ID: <4A689EB4.1000002 at sundorne.com> 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed 

Instead of using Add > Files, just drag them from a Windows explorer 
window onto the book. This way the order stays the same. 

Ian 

Dustin Wilcox wrote: 
> Hopefully this is an easy one. 
> 
> I had this problem in 7.2 and now 9 and wonder what exactly is causing it 
> and if there is a fix. I'm creating a book and adding 50 or so files to it 
> (through the add file button). Even though the files are sequentially 
> numbered, Frame adds them in reverse order. It's time consuming to go back 
> and reorder them. Is this just a quirk, am I doing something wrong, or is 
> there a patch? 
> 
> Many thanks 
> 
> Dustin