Opening images through context menu: Images not in alphabetical order

[Pantersnigeln]

Using Windows 7 and Gimp 2.10.22
New to the forum. Let me know if this is in the wrong place.

After the "Edit with Gimp" button disappeared from the Explorer context menu I've reassigned the context menu Edit button to send images to Gimp.

When I select multiple images and click Edit in Explorer, they're loaded into Gimp, but not in alphabetical order. This is very annoying. Is there a reason for this? When the images are loaded in a jumbled order it's very hard to get a good overview and see which images are similar and need similar editing (I edit plant photos and the files are named after the plant species and variety).
Is the load order deliberately set in a different way (=not alphabetical) because more people prefer it that way? If not; is this something that could be ammended in a coming release, or offered as an option in the Gimp preferences?

Opening the images through Gimp lets me load them in alphabetical order, but I move the finished images around on my harddrive, so since I'm in Explorer in between editing it's faster for me to load the next bunch directly from Explorer.


Another thing that is also mildly annoying but not a big deal: When Gimp is closed and I select, say 10, images and click Edit in the Explorer contect menu; 10 separate Gimp windows are opened. When Gimp is already opened, the 10 images are instead loaded into Gimp in one window as they should be. Can this be ammended or is it a Windows thing?

[Redraw]

(10-25-2020, 06:21 PM)Pantersnigeln Wrote: Using Windows 7 and Gimp 2.10.22
New to the forum. Let me know if this is in the wrong place.

After the "Edit with Gimp" button disappeared from the Explorer context menu I've reassigned the context menu Edit button to send images to Gimp.

When I select multiple images and click Edit in Explorer, they're loaded into Gimp, but not in alphabetical order. This is very annoying. Is there a reason for this? When the images are loaded in a jumbled order it's very hard to get a good overview and see which images are similar and need similar editing (I edit plant photos and the files are named after the plant species and variety).
Is the load order deliberately set in a different way (=not alphabetical) because more people prefer it that way? If not; is this something that could be ammended in a coming release, or offered as an option in the Gimp preferences?

Opening the images through Gimp lets me load them in alphabetical order, but I move the finished images around on my harddrive, so since I'm in Explorer in between editing it's faster for me to load the next bunch directly from Explorer.

I have tried to get Gimp to do what you're trying to do Gimp seems to throw the images in at random , I don't know of anyway to change that random loading order , if there is any, but , a workaround is when I need to this is to only send of 1 or 2  images at a time till all the batch is loaded , YES seems to take longer But I get the images opened in the order I need , I only use that once in a while.

Quote:Another thing that is also mildly annoying but not a big deal: When Gimp is closed and I select, say 10, images and click Edit in the Explorer contect menu; 10 separate Gimp windows are opened. When Gimp is already opened, the 10 images are instead loaded into Gimp in one window as they should be. Can this be ammended or is it a Windows thing?

are you using just one monitor or two ?,
and single window mode on or off ?

Since you are on Win7 maybe someone on Win can help explain this bit ,
there was a Linux distro (I tried moved on from) and it was doing the same thing with some of the apps inc Gimp ,
Sorry if it sounds like no help , Hang on What trying to say is it would be difficult to check those sorts of setting
In this situation
have given thought to the Version of Gimp-Where you got it from etc , from what I have read (here) some versions can give unpredictable performance and problems

Someone with Win7 + Gimp Versions knowledge/experience will be better to help with this bit than me on Linux
Version of Gimp-Where you got it from.

Sorry I could not be more help .

[Ofnuts]

There are two problems here:

1. The explorer starts one Gimp instance for each file, instead of starting one Gimp instance and giving it all the files. Normally a new instance looks an already running one and passes it the file, but if everything is started at the same time, the simultaneous instances may not have the time to show the others that they will take care of things. 
   
2. It is likely that the explorer orders the files by their natural order from its point of view, which could be the ordering of file entries in the directory in the file system (that are, in a fresh directory, the order of creation, but will change over time due to renaming, and erasure and re-use of empty entries).
   

If the groups of files you edit are isolated in their own directories, it is quite easy to write a small .BAT that calls Gimp on them, first starting an instance without image, then sleeping for a second to let it initialize, and then calling Gimp with the files in order.

[Pantersnigeln]

Thanks for looking into this.

I have switched to loading images through Gimp for now, as it's the easiest solution.
I tested drag-and-dropping images into Gimp from Explorer. Drag-and-drop does not cause the same issue; the images are loaded in the proper order. It only works in an empty Gimp window though, otherwise the dragged images are added as layers instead of separate images.

I can try to replicate my issues on a Winows 10 computer later today. Since Windows 7 is a "dead" OS I realise it's not a priority issue unless it occurs in Win 10 as well.

I'm on a laptop, using the laptop's own monitor, and I use Single-Window Mode in Gimp.

The files I'm loading are in a folder with a lot of other files waiting to be processed.

I don't know if this could be relevant, but here goes:
The first time I tried loading a bunch of images from the Gimp menu by pressing Open in the File menu, I noticed that the files in the little explorer window were also not in alphabetical order. Unfortunately I didn't stop to look at what order they were in, but maybe the default in Gimp is also the "natural" order that you mention Ofnuts. I pressed the Name header to sort the images alphabetically before selecting a bunch of them to open. This was yesterday, so I was using the same Gimp version.

[rich2005]

Ok you found the result I was going to propose. Trying to get some suitable animations less than 60 seconds for imgur and missed your post. This is using Win 7, Explorer is slightly better in Win10

FWIW

Much as I dislike "click-n-wish" and although Windows explorer has scarcely improved since Win 3.1, Explorer does sort by name or date and order.

If you can fit drag-n-drop into your workflow might go like this:

With Gimp closed: https://i.imgur.com/WcqOrL1.mp4

With Gimp open: https://i.imgur.com/OlIuXsi.mp4

Quote: otherwise the dragged images are added as layers instead of separate images.

drag into the toolbox, not the canvas

[Pantersnigeln]

(10-26-2020, 11:27 AM)rich2005 Wrote: Ok you found the result I was going to propose. Trying to get some suitable animations less than 60 seconds for imgur and missed your post. This is using Win 7, Explorer is slightly better in Win10

FWIW

Much as I dislike "click-n-wish" and although Windows explorer has scarcely improved since Win 3.1, Explorer does sort by name or date and order.

If you can fit drag-n-drop into your workflow might go like this:

With Gimp closed: https://i.imgur.com/WcqOrL1.mp4

With Gimp open: https://i.imgur.com/OlIuXsi.mp4

Quote: otherwise the dragged images are added as layers instead of separate images.

drag into the toolbox, not the canvas

Dragging images to anywhere but the image space does nothing for me when Gimp already has an image open. The images don't load. I get the drag-and-drop mouse icon, but when I release nothing happens.
I won't be using drag-and-drop, but it's interesting that it doesn't work.

[rich2005]

(10-26-2020, 12:44 PM)Pantersnigeln Wrote: Dragging images to anywhere but the image space does nothing for me when Gimp already has an image open. The images don't load. I get the drag-and-drop mouse icon, but when I release nothing happens.
I won't be using drag-and-drop, but it's interesting that it doesn't work.

Only for you. Do you think that I made this up ? https://i.imgur.com/OlIuXsi.mp4

What do you think the space at the top of the tool box is for?

[Pantersnigeln]

(10-26-2020, 01:12 PM)rich2005 Wrote:

(10-26-2020, 12:44 PM)Pantersnigeln Wrote: Dragging images to anywhere but the image space does nothing for me when Gimp already has an image open. The images don't load. I get the drag-and-drop mouse icon, but when I release nothing happens.
I won't be using drag-and-drop, but it's interesting that it doesn't work.

Only for you. Do you think that I made this up ?  https://i.imgur.com/OlIuXsi.mp4

What do you think the space at the top of the tool box is for?

Dropping them over the tool box as you showed does work. I don't really know how I missed this before.

Probably it only made sense to me to drag and drop them on to the space they will occupy when loaded, where they show as tabs with little thumbnails (below the main menu, above the image space).
I must have only been dragging them to that area, assuming that if it doesn't work there, where it most logically should (in my mind) that the problem applies to all the other areas surrounding the image space as well. When dragging images to anywhere over the Gimp window you get a mouse icon implying that the drag and drop will work, but nothing happens when dropping over that image tab area.

So as a follow-up comment on this sidenote, I suppose I wonder if it wouldn't make sense to allow drag and drop onto the image tab area as well as the tool box?