"Randomising" files?

[Ari]

The digital photo frame again!

Ok so I've got about 700 jpegs into a file on the memory card, the frame can see and display them, no problem.

Trouble is, they're all in order. So all the Venice photos are together, all the boat photos are together, all the Boychild photos and so on. I need to mix them up a bit (a lot actually, otherwise it looks dull with loads of pics of one thing one after the other).

Trouble is since (for example) the Venice one were all taken together and with a similar file name (Venice 1, Venice 2 etc) then however I order them (by name, by file date etc) they all end up grouped together.

Is there any easy way of jumbling them up? Trying to jumble them manually is a complete pain (I've tried, there's too many photos to do it effectively).

Unfortunatley there doesn't seem to be a random view setting on the picture frame.

[jari]

Hi Ari,

to dictate the content ordering when using filename display ordering you should be able to achieve this by either:

- prefixing the filenames with your own choice of sequence numbers or generate random numbers i.e 0138venice1.jpg, 0123venice2.jpg

- or, just simply renaming the files entirely using random numbers 0123.jpg,232.jpg

To do this in large batches, there is a rather old pc renaming utility I just tried that works on xp (download from http://www.webmastersguide.com/downloads/Renamer.exe )

I just used it against a directory with 468 photos all with original filenames like:

DSCF0001.jpg (start of holiday snap)

DSCF0002.jpg

..

DSCF0468.jpg (end of holiday snap)

.. and renamed them for a new 'filename' sort ordering as follows:

old file name -> new file name

DSCF0001.jpg -> pic0456.jpg (this now shows near the end)

DSCF0002.jpg -> pic0201.jpg (this now shows in the middle)

..

DSCF0468.jpg -> pic0040.jpg (this now shows near beginning)

There are probably better utils for windows (search google for 'file rename random') I am sure, however if you want to give this one a try then here are some tips for using it:

+ When installing this ableit 'old' tool it will ask if it can overwrite existing system files that are much newer that what its trying to copy over, click on 'keep' original/existing system files for all i.e dont overwrite with old versions

+ to use the utility, first tell it to create the renamed files in a new directory as specified in 'directory copy to' so you don't naff up your originals

+ in options section set the following preferences:

+ 'new prefix' I used 'pic' - seems to randomize better

when using new prefix option, you can try with

and without.

+ select 'Numbering' -> 'put numbers in new names'

+ select 'Mode' -> 'random'

+ select any of the two 'number paddings' either

padded or non padded, I chose padded

+ 'source file action' -> 'do not delete source files'

+ click 'OK' then 'rename'

hope this helps