Categorising File Names by Date

Hi,

I have some word files named by date but Windows doesn't seem to want to cooperate when sorting by name.

My e.g

I have three word files named in the following format :

• Daniel CV-31-07-14
• Daniel CV-23-07-14
• Daniel CV-24-09-12

In this case the numbers separated by hyphens represent the date; dd-mm-yy, with the most up to date first.

However windows sorts them like this:

• Daniel CV-23-07-14
• Daniel CV-24-09-12
• Daniel CV-31-07-14

I have looked at and followed the example set here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/hub/archive/2010/01/18/name-your-files-for-proper-date-sorting.aspx

What am I doing wrong?

It sorts your dates alphabetically left to right.  In this case 23 is greater than 24 which is greater than 31.

Instead of using dd-mm-yy, try using yy-mm-dd. 

You don't list what you have tried after looking at that link, unless the above is the result, if it is you have not followed the instruction properly, this is from that link:-

 

The best practice here is keep naming consistent and then use YYMMDD format, so they sort by year, then month, and then day:

So instead of this;

Newsletter-010410.docx
Newsletter-011011.docx (see, this is from 2011!)
Newsletter-011810.docx
Newsletter-020110.docx    

 

Use This;

Newsletter-10-01-04.docx

Basically 2 digit entries for the date, spaced as shown, starting with Year, Month and Day, if there is a single digit, e.g. the 1st, use 01.

So to present your data above as per that link, try the way they said as follows;

Instead of;

• Daniel CV-31-07-14
• Daniel CV-23-07-14
• Daniel CV-24-09-12

They should be;

• Daniel CV-14-07-31
• Daniel CV-14-07-23
• Daniel CV-12-09-24

See if that helps, if it doesn't we will need to check some settings, hope this helps.

Hi to the both of you,

Brilliant, it works a treat. Not to sound ungrateful but it's not in the dd/mm/yy I had hoped for. Sorry, that is ungrateful. I'll stick with the yy/mm/dd format.

8210GUY, true to form, thanks for the in depth solution provided; thank you too, robsiew.

I got piped to the post lol, but true, I prefer my dates that way round as well (the "proper" way lol), but the problem is the OS puts files in alphabetical order (as I'm sure you know), which means it reads numbers in a different way (to me anyway), but due to the format, it can't tell the difference between the days as to which is 1st, so the year and month being relatively static, it can make more sense from them.

That's my take anyway, but you "may" be able to do it the way you want, so the day comes first, BUT, it can be flawed, if you right click on a clear part of the folder (I assume they are in one), then you get options on how to organise the view, this can be very helpful, I always set my trash bin to view the files in date deleted order, that way if I need to get something back, I can find it quite quickly.

So in your case you could try using Date Modified (under right click; go to Sort By, then Date Modified), the problem with that setting is if you modify an older file, that would then jump back to the top of the list, the other method is much more sound, but I mention this incase it helps.

The proper way lol. It's the English/UK format, isnt it?

I will give your suggestion a go. Thanks again for all your help.

Yes, that's what I meant, you were using the UK way, hence the proper way lmao.