Sorting out Folders

Question

Level 1

8 points

Sorting out Folders

I am currently using an iMac 2009, running on El Capitan.

My files in folders are being sorted by alphabetical order and for some folders, I do not wish to have that. For some folders, I would rather arrange the files and folders in it manually. However, files in my folders are all being sorted automatically in alphabetical order. How do I get rid of this? I have tried selecting Arrange by > None, but that does not work whatsoever

Does anyone have a solution?

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on May 10, 2016 1:02 PM

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Answer 1

benwiggy

Level 4

1,491 points

May 10, 2016 2:12 PM in response to ilwxh

It is usual for the Finder to sort the contents in some way. By default, alphabetically. You can choose other ways, using View > Arrange By ....

Can I ask: why would you want to manually sort your files? That's not time well spent. Computers are there to do things for you. If there's a particular order that you want, then perhaps there's a way of getting the computer to do that.

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Answer 2

dialabrain

Level 10

136,127 points

May 11, 2016 10:41 AM in response to ilwxh

FWIW, the only way to arbitrarily organize files is in Icon View. "Sort by" and "Arrange by" has to be set to "None" including in the Finder view options.

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Answer 3

balsa2

Level 4

1,396 points

May 10, 2016 3:06 PM in response to ilwxh

You could create custom Tags for the folders using numbers & letters, or a combination of both :

Using list view in a Finder window, add the Tags category to the Finder window :

Toggling the Tags Column will sort or reverse the order of the Tags.

Any folder without a Tag will remain in its place :

You will have to keep the Tags category in the Finder window for this to work.

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Answer 4

ilwxh Author

Level 1

8 points

May 11, 2016 5:53 AM in response to benwiggy

Is that so? All my old files are arranged according to when I last dropped it into the folder. It is just recently that my computer has started to arrange my files in alphabetical order.

And to answer your curiosity, there are some files that I want next to each other / some files I want on the same row / some files on different rows. I understand that its time not well spent but it is a personal preference and I wish I had the option to do that.

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Answer 5

ilwxh Author

Level 1

8 points

May 11, 2016 5:55 AM in response to dialabrain

Thank you so much, I've finally got it working now!

Much appreciated!

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Answer 6

dialabrain

Level 10

136,127 points

May 11, 2016 5:57 AM in response to ilwxh

ilwxh wrote:

Thank you so much, I've finally got it working now!

Much appreciated!

most welcome.

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Answer 7

benwiggy

Level 4

1,491 points

May 11, 2016 6:07 AM in response to ilwxh

ilwxh wrote:

Is that so? All my old files are arranged according to when I last dropped it into the folder.

Yes. While Icon View can display things in a window wherever they happen to have been left, I certainly wouldn't rely on it as a document sorting strategy.

I would recommend the Tags approach suggested by balsa2.

All the best

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