Arlen Holder wrote:
On 19 Sep 2018 02:15:03 GMT, Arlen Holder wrote:

NOTE: It's not a big deal with 9 files, but try this set of 400!

Why when I select pictures 1 to 10, does Paint.NET order them capriciously?

I forgot to screenshot the set of 400 files I wish to edit in order.
http://www.bild.me/bild.php?file=8140464numbertest05.jpg

It's a waste of time to have to reorder them in Paint.NET.

What is the trick to make Windows just open the files in the correct order?

I did a quick check here with the in-box "Paint",
selected just four files...

and they don't show up in a consistent order.

First I tried disabling Windows Defender realtime protection,
and the order was still random. It's not like a computer,
to do that. I could accept "out of numeric order, but
consistent from run to run". But finding different orders
from one run to the next, that's a puzzle. And it's a puzzle
because there is likely a single thread of execution
opening the files. So somehow they're arriving at a queue
inside the system, randomly. How is that possible ?

*******

If you use the batch command in Irfanview, and you select
1..10 for files, it lists them 10,1,2,3...9. The last item
in the extended selection, becomes the first item in the
list. But at least that behavior is consistent from run
to run. It always seems to do that (inside the tool).

If you want consistency, you might have to batch process
things.

In IrfanView, you can also try crafting the extended selection
outside the tool (in Notepad), then paste it into the open
dialog, and see if that helps process them in a desired order.

*******

Unless the program has a macro recorder, and you're using a macro,
opening 400 windows one at a time, and mousing the image to death,
is nuts.

That's why we have IrfanView, NetPBM/PBMPlus. The latter
examples there, allow piping commands to one another, to
do simple things like crop and convert to a new image format.

Maybe those 400 images are your vacation photos,
but that's a hell of a lot of edits to do, even with
a macro. I've scanned a 50 page document (a "do not copy"
document) from work, and processed that, and even that
job was nuts, and I swore I'd never do one of those
again. I was a lather of sweat when I was finished.
"Boring repetitive operations are boring."

Paul