Dragging files within the same folder

[irvo]

My mother has just purchased a new PC with Windows 7 and as I am unfamiliar with this OS I thought someone on here may be able to help. Basically she is trying to reposition word documents within the same folder but W7 will not allow her to click and drag them to their new position. The 'sort by' option will only allow her to order the documents by alphabetical order, date, order visited etc.Whenever she tries to highlight the document icon and then click and drag it to her required position in the list of documents it just returns to its original position. This only happens whenever she tries to move files within the same folder. Any ideas?

 

[IggyAZ]

My mother has just purchased a new PC with Windows 7 and as I am unfamiliar with this OS I thought someone on here may be able to help. Basically she is trying to reposition word documents within the same folder but W7 will not allow her to click and drag them to their new position. The 'sort by' option will only allow her to order the documents by alphabetical order, date, order visited etc.Whenever she tries to highlight the document icon and then click and drag it to her required position in the list of documents it just returns to its original position. This only happens whenever she tries to move files within the same folder. Any ideas?

Hi and welcome.
Interesting question but I think you have already answered your question. As far as I know without any other program installed you can only sort what is in the directory alphabetical order, date, size order, tags etc. The computer needs to have some logical sort it understands. I bet your Mom had a Apple previously and arranged on her desktop things that way but not within a directory. This is so your computer and Win7 can search, find and open files quicker sorted alphabetically.

Let's see what other may suggest.

 

[Stars1408]

It's very inconvenient for us though - especially if you've had Windows XP previously and now spend all your time renaming things to get it into the order you want. It's a lot of hassle which we shouldn't have to do.

 

[Little Darwin]

Folders are your friends... I assume that the order wanted is somehow related to the content. I would suggest creating subfolders and storing your documents there.

Folders like "Family" "Work" "Vacation" or whatever makes sense.

Follow the model you would for a filing cabinet... If one folder doesn't work for everything, then figure out a multiple folder strategy that works.


Also, if there is another attribute you want to use within the files (they vary depending on type) when you right click in the folder you select Sort By and you can pick "More..." There are MANY attributes that you can sort by. You can also group them.

 

[Little Darwin]

Also, I agree that forcing sorting is silly, but instead of renaming files, think about what you really need the order to represent, and approach it from that perspective.

 

[Stars1408]

Thanks for your reply - yes, I've heard on here before regarding the sorting options and making different catagory folders - it's just about all you can do apart from the long winded renaming thing.

I have folders for different images I take, so for example if I take ladybird pictures I put them in their own folder and like to have them in the order of how well the pictures come out or perhaps types of ladybird together (if I didn't want to mess about with lots of subfolders). In the past I would just drag them to the order I wanted but now to do it I have to rename them all, as the sort options wouldn't put them into image quality order.

It just seems ridiculous that it can't just be straightforward like it was before on XP. It's just taken away a part of the functionality of the program. I understand from here that it takes longer for the computer to go through them if it's not in a sequence - but I would think most folders on the system wouldn't be affected by this anyway as it would probably be for only a few specific folders that someone would want to move things about. It is the user's choice anyhow which shouldn't have been taken away in my opinion.

 

[MilesAhead]

Take a look at some of the file manager programs. I use FreeCommander and afaik there's no manual drag & drop to override the explorer sort options. But that doesn't mean there aren't any file managers that let it you do so.

Try sites like Softpedia.com, Snapfiles.com.

Also this site has a forum where you spell out what you are looking for in a freeware:
I Want a Freeware Program that ... - Gizmo's Freeware Forum

also donatoncoder has a "Coding Snacks" section where you request a specific type of program. If it's small and easy to do they may write it for you, or if they know of one that's out already they think might do what you want, they'll post links to it:

Post New Requests Here - DonationCoder.com

 

[Stars1408]

Many thanks for this info - I will go and check them out.

I've just discovered a new thing tonight regarding lack of manually moving files. I have monthly folders assigned to newsletters I do for work, and instead of month order they have gone into alphabetical order. I tried clicking on date modified for ordering, but then I lose the folders view - how can you reorder the folders by date modified with the folders showing?