Help! My Pictures Folder Is A Mess

Deena writes:

 I have Windows 7 ans usually when I select a photo from an e-mail or Facebook it gives me the choice to save picture, when I do that it opens my pictures where my picture folders are and I save it there but when I check to see it is I am unable to move around ie dates etc so my pictures, although in the My pictures folder are all over the place and not in order as I would like them to be. I used to be able to do this without any problem but I think Explorer has changed the format. Hope you can help me and Thanks.

Windows Explorer hasn’t changed formats, but it’s possible that you may have accidentally changed the way your photos are sorted. Let’s take a look at the ways you can sort the photos in your pictures files.

At the top right of your Pictures Library, you’ll see a photo icon with a drop-down arrow next to it.

Click on that arrow and you’ll see options to view your images as icons or as lists:

 If you choose Small, Medium, Large or Extra Large Icons, your photos will be displayed as thumbnails.

Choose details and you’ll have some useful sorting options.

 

Click the Name header to sort alphabetically. Click Date to sort by date. Clicking the header again will sort in reverse order.

You have additional sorting option if you click the drop-down arrow at the upper right next to Arrange By.

 

You can arrange by month or day.

Here’s the same file arranged by month.

Be aware that photos saved from the Internet may sometimes sort by the date it was created and not by the date you save it. Two things that could help you as you sort your photos are to create files for various kinds of images and to have a system for naming photos.

For example, you could create a file for the year and then subfolders for every month of the year.  To create a file right click and select new. The select Folder.

You could then name the folder something like Photos 2015.

Then make subfolders for the months of the year and save folders into the appropriate folder for that month. Once saved to that folder, you can sort by name or date.

You can also develop a specific system for naming photos.  Whether if be something like FBphoto011715 or inspirationalquotekeeptrying,  specific system can help you keep things sorted.  Let’s take a look as we save the photo below from Facebook. I’ll right-click and choose Save Image As on this photo of baby Fiona.

I’ll choose Photos 2015 and then the subfolder January 2015 as my destination folder.

Then I will rename the file a descriptive term that makes it easier to find.

If I need to search for that photo later, I can either browse the 2015 photo or search by date for title.

You can also create folders and move the images you already have saved in your Pictures library to them for better organization.

~ Cynthia