Hi,
Just wondering if there is a way to sort files within the Binder (say in a folder in the Draft folder) by creation or modification date? I have searched the forum and can see that this is possible by using columns in the Outliner, but I’d like to do this to files within the Binder, so they appear chronologically rather than alphabetically.
Is this possible? Sorry if I’m missing something obvious! Thanks.
You heard correctly, this sort of thing is done with the outliner. You could get a sorted list into a Collection, but that will only be sorted at the time that you make it, since collections like this are controlled entirely by you. Any form of automatically generated search collection will use the binder order.
To clarify one thing though, the binder isn’t sorted by anything except you, not even alphabetical. In most cases one is going to want to control the order of things in their book, rather than have it published by some sort algorithm, so I don’t really see what benefit there would be had to keeping the binder sorted by anything other than what you set up. The Outliner and Corkboard are specifically designed to give you more focussed and flexible views of your work. Remember you can use split views, so if you would like a chronological listing you can keep an Outliner open to an “asterisk” search that is sorted, and even turn on Auto-Load (the double-arrow icon in the footer) so that whatever you click on in that list is automatically loaded in the split, causing it to act a bit like the Binder. You could even close the Binder and just use the Outliner.
Thanks!
Your suggestion about using the split view in Outliner works perfectly.
I have a new project I want to use as a journal, in which the “date created” data is the principal ordering principle. I was confused because I was in fact able to sort items in the Binder alphabetically, by choosing a folder in the Binder, then “Documents” and “Sort”, either ascending or descending alphabetically. I wanted to do this chronologically as well, but your suggestion with the Outliner works fine — thank you.
I see what you mean now. I thought you were looking for a soft sort, something that doesn’t impact the underlying order. The Documents/Sort command is a hard sort, the previous order of things will be lost when using it.
If you do wish to do a chronological hard sort (or any type that is supported by the Outliner’s soft sorting feature) all you have to do is select a container, sort it, and then select all of the items in the Outliner and drag them back into that container in the Binder. This will re-arrange items in the order that they appear in the view (sorted). This works best for containers, rather than the whole thing, because dragging stuff from an Outliner into the Binder will essentially move those items (you’re moving them back to the same container, in a different order, technically). So if you Outliner contains items from numerous locations, they will all be gathered into one location—that can be very useful for some things, but a gotcha to look out for otherwise.