sorting by date in the explorer pane?

[wordmuse]

One of the features I look forward to with anticipation is this one:

Detect and sort by dates and numbers in Data Explorer pane.

But I'm not seeing any way to do this. And I don't see it in the help file. Please point the way.

Thanks.

[kinook]

First, you need today's build (UltraRecall.exe 4.0.0.5 in Help | About | Install Info). Then, if date (i.e., 8/18/2009) or numeric values (i.e., 123) are detected in the item titles when sorting siblings, they will be sorted by the date/numeric value instead of as a string value. For instance, 8/18/2009 will go before 7/1/2010 and 10 will go after 9 (if sorting in ascending order).

[wordmuse]

geat - i'll pick up the new build this evening.

Thanks a lot!

[wordmuse]

OK - I have the new build.

If I date/time stamp the items in the Explorer pane, should the time be picked up as well as the date for the purpose of sorting?

If not, can a future release of URP4 be made to do so?

Thanks.

[kinook]

It will be, as long as Windows can convert the date and time formatting. This will work best if the format matches the Time and Short Date formats specified in Regional and Language Options in the Control Panel, which it will if Item | Rename To | Date+Time or Edit | Insert Date+Time (and 'Date+time' is specified for 'Tools | Options | Miscellaneous Insert date/time as') are used to format the date+time. For instance,

8/19/2009 3:53 AM

sorts before

8/19/2009 1:49 PM

in my tests.

[wordmuse]

Howdy -

OK - A couple of comments - hopefully taken as constructive.

This is really just a partial implementation of what I have wanted. It is still basically an sort on the title of the item, not a reading of the date created or the date modified attributes, which is what I am really wanting.

I don't even need the date or time to appear in the title itself, although sometimes I do that for clarity.

But in my test:

08-20-2009 - 12:01 PM

sorts before

y 08-20-2009 - 12:00 PM

So again - what I am looking for is the Explorer pane to take information from the item attributes of either Date Created or Date Modified (just like in one of the related items panes) and sort accordingly.

Can this be done or at least put into the roadmap?

Thanks!

[kinook]

This enhancement requires formatting the item title to be a string that can be parsed by Windows as a date or date+time (as described in my previous post).

Sorting in the tree by other attributes is on the road map.

[wordmuse]

OK - thanks a lot. I'm waiting with eager anticipation.

Regards,
Bal