Ordering Numbers

Troubleshooting
1

Hello -

I am new to Tropy and am importing, categorizing and tagging my photos. I’ve noticed that Tropy has trouble sorting numbers. For example it will place “2” between 19 and 20 instead of between 1 and 3. Or it will place 93 after 104. I think it is reading the first number as the sorting number and then everything behind that as if there was a decimal place. I’m wondering if I’m doing something wrong or if others have had this problem.

Thanks!

Best, Annie

2

Tropy currently treats all metadata fields as strings, so the result you describe is expected (unfortunately in this case). We are going to support more data types using custom input widgets (at least dates, numbers and names), but it will take us a while to get there.

3

Thanks great that there will be more data types in the future. Right now, importing numbered documents on Tropy looks like this:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tb0zejf302sgqhn/Screen%20Shot%202018-03-13%20at%206.23.54%20PM.png?dl=0

It’s time-consuming to go through and manually re-title each page of a document on your computer.

4

In order to wait for the widget, an easy solution would be to batch rename your pictures with https://www.xnview.com (a free software), before importing them in Tropy (if not, you would have to consolidate your photos one by one in Tropy, which is also time consuming).
In Xnview, you select the pictures you have to rename and press F2, then you insert a string which, in your example, would be (if your pictures are not properly sorted, you can manage it in the new window):
N96 6 fevrier 1751 -##
or, better:
N96_06_fevrier_1751_-##
Regards
Nicolas

5

Hi Nicholas -

Thanks for the suggestion. I am batch renaming. The problem isn’t with the 6 feb. It’s with the - ## at the end, which my system is naming 1, 2, 3, …10, 11 and then tropy is putting 2 after 19 and before 20. etc.

Best, Annie

6

Hi Annie,
Sorry, my message might have not been clear enough.
In fact, if you have 1-99 pictures belonging to the same archive / having the same provenance, you should batch rename with a software that forces the file name to end with two numbers: 01, 02, 03, …09, 10 (and so on: 1-999 pictures, 001, 002, 003, …099, 100, …).
Like this, if the first part of your file name remains unchanged, Tropy (which is considering the pictures name as an alphanumeric string) will sort your files from “N96 6 fevrier 1751 -01” to “N96 6 fevrier 1751 -13”.

Among, I suppose, many other programs, Xnview provides a batch naming tool. To rename your files, forcing it to double numbering, you should use this string in the tool:

  • N96 6 fevrier 1751 -##
    [by using N96 6 fevrier 1751 -# instead, you would obtain the same naming you actually have]

In case you have also documents from February 1751, you should use this string:

  • N96 06 fevrier 1751 -##
    Documents from the same month would be grouped together, but (e.g.) documents written in Avril would come first

Or, even better:

  • N96 1751-02-06 -##
    Documents will be sorting (during import) according to their call number and then their date

If you have already inserted photos in Tropy, consider grouping them in Items, where you can change their order easily.

Regards,
Nicolas

7

Batch renaming numbers like this is something we could add to batch editing in Tropy, too. We would probably need a way to turn this on or off though.