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Question

Shuffler

Apr 6, 2015 9:43PM PDT

I'm looking for a software program that will shuffle 500+ photos in a folder randomly and not change the ext. from jpg file so I can put on flash drive to start a slideshow. Thanks

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Re: shuffle
Apr 6, 2015 10:09PM PDT

That's a nice problem.

The first thing to determine is how the device or program that reads the flash drive determines the sequence to show the pictures.
- Maybe it has a random mode and that might be what you want. Nothing more needed.
- Or it shows the files in alfabetic sequence by name. Then you need to rename the pictures to random names.
- Or it shows the files in the sequence in which they were written to the flash drive. Then you don't need to shuffle the files in the source folder, but it suffices to have program that copies them to the flash drive in a random sequence. Or if you shuffle the files in the source folder in some way, you have to tell the program that copies the fles to the flash drive to use that shuffled sequence.

Kees

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Tried
Apr 6, 2015 11:32PM PDT

I have them on a flash drive now and the TV plays them back the way they are on the drive. The TV doesn't shuffle them either.

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Answer
If I recall the TV reads them in some sort by name order.
Apr 7, 2015 1:54AM PDT
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I done that
Apr 7, 2015 8:41AM PDT

OK ownloaded the program into folder with the pictures I would like to shuffle. The photos are still lined up per date. The file names are all random. Now how do I scramble them up per numbe. I right click on a photo and it doesn't give me an option to sort by name or any option to shuffle. What do I need to do now Thanks

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OK, touch by date.
Apr 7, 2015 8:56AM PDT
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Re: sort by filename
Apr 9, 2015 6:09AM PDT

If you set the view to detail, you can sort on everything you want, for example the random name. But that's just the view in Windows Explorer. The inherent sequence in the directory is quite something else, and it's unsure (undefined?) what sequence drag and drop or copy/paste uses when copying.

Anyway, it's quite possible the TV will show them in filename order (which is random now), even if you copied them while the Explorer view was different. Did you try?
An alternativeL: try copying them with xcopy from the command prompt. That might very well do it sorted by name (it does with me), and that's a random sequence now.

Kees

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Didn't work
Apr 12, 2015 10:03PM PDT

I tried opening them all and changed to detail in Explorer.. That worked. But I couldn't do anything else except one at a time. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. What is xcopy? Thanks

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Re: xcopy
Apr 12, 2015 10:11PM PDT

xcopy is a command line command to copy multiple files.

For example: to copy all jpg-files from say, folder c:\temp to f: you go into the command prompt, type
xcopy c:\temp\*.jpg f:
then enter and they are all copied.

Yep, that already existed 30 years ago, in 1985 when there was no Windows yet. And it's still useful, sometimes.

Kees

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Thanks
Apr 20, 2015 10:17PM PDT

Thanks