Scrolling Through Images in Order that Windows has Them Sorted in Directory

[SurferJon]

Hi,

Windows Photo Viewer allows you to scroll through images in the exact same order as they appear in a folder. For example, if the first file in my current folder is file-X.jpg, then file-3.gif is second, and file-019292.jpg is third, it'll keep them in that order while scrolling rather than alphabetical order or some other option. It would also be nice if there was a "Date Created" and "Date Modified" option if the aforementioned suggestion is not possible, as that will pretty much mimic the order of files you throw into your folders.

Thank you for your wonderful program! It's amazing!

[Mij]

There is a way of doing what you describe in Irfanview already.

First though do not make the mistake of thinking that when you sort files by, for example, "Date Created" in a file manager program like Windows/File Explorer that you are changing the actual order of the files in the folder. There is no actual order of the files on your hard disk drive. Bits of them can be stored anywhere by the NTFS filing system used by all versions of Windows after Win98/me. The order that the files are delivered to Irfanview when you request the contents of a folder are controlled by a Registry key which by default is equivalent to the Irfanview "Sort by Name" or "Sort by Name (natural/logic order).

To do what you ask for you need to have a shortcut to Irfanview on your desktop. Select whatever range of files you want from your sorted list in Explorer (it does not have to be all of them but must be more than one file). Then left click on the first file selected, hold down the button and drag and drop them onto the Irfanview shortcut.

What you selected will then be shown in the same order as they do in the Explorer window.

[PuterPro]

The answer to your question is; in the menus at the top click OPTIONS then about 3/4 of the way down put your mouse over "Choose Sort Order" then select how you want them sorted.

"By EXIF Date" does it in order of date taken (as stored in the picture), I usually use "By Name (natural/logic order)" as "By Name" does a bit of a strange logic; 001.jpg,1.jpg,002.jpg,2.jpg and so on rather than 001,002,003,1,2,3.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

The question was to sort by "Date Created," and "Date Modified."

Not all JPG images contain Exif data, and no GIF images do AFAIK.

[Mij]

In fact the request in the title was "Scrolling Through Images in Order that Windows has Them Sorted in Directory" and that was what I replied to in my post.

I thought that the OP probably shared the common mistake of thinking that when you sorted the folder contents into a special order in an application like Windows Explorer (File Explorer in Win 10) then it would be stored in that way in the Windows system. I did think however that another Microsoft Application like Windows Photo Viewer might possibly communicate with Explorer and display images in the same order as that currently selected there.

I have found time today to check Windows Photo viewer and discovered that it did not do that. It displays in exactly the same order as Irfanview does when Sort > "By Name - Ascending" is chosen. So I have returned to ask SurferJon what method he is using to get the files in the order he describes.

The method I described using drag and drop onto the Irfanview shortcut allows you to copy any file order that you can select in Explorer but the order that he describes is not one I have ever seen.

[Steerpike]

The answer to your question is; in the menus at the top click OPTIONS then about 3/4 of the way down put your mouse over "Choose Sort Order" then select how you want them sorted.

"By EXIF Date" does it in order of date taken (as stored in the picture), I usually use "By Name (natural/logic order)" as "By Name" does a bit of a strange logic; 001.jpg,1.jpg,002.jpg,2.jpg and so on rather than 001,002,003,1,2,3.

Old thread and answer, but - after 20 years of using IrfanView, I didn't know this! I have a directory with photos from an android device and an apple device, and the Apple images don't use 'date' as their filename, so the images did not sort correctly. Further - Apple mess with the files after creation and update the 'date' such that they don't reflect the date taken (unlike Android photos).

It's true, as another poster pointed out, that not all images contain Exif data, but still - this is a great solution for most people.