Sorting Folders by Date

Conventions and standards are great – except that everybody has their own ideas of what those conventions should be. And just like everyone else, in some things I’m pretty convinced that my way is the right way.

Um, yeah.

Let’s concentrate on how to include date information in a folder (or file) name. Don’t you agree that if the date is important enough to include in the name, you want it to sort nicely? But of course you do! So here it is, my Help Topic for including dates in folder names.

If you are arranging items in dated folders, this is the format required to ensure those folders are sorted chronologically, since folder names are only recognized as text and not as actual dates.

Start with the date in this format: YYYY-MM-DD. After this, you can add whatever text you like, but having this date format at the beginning will sort the folders chronologically.

Example 1: When no matter what, you want to sort by date primarily

Instead of	New format sorts by Date
December 10, 2012 Year End Meeting	2012-10-14 Survey Submissions
February 18, 2013 Meeting Docs	2012-11-20 Candidates Review
February 18, 2013 Survey Submissions	2012-12-10 Year End Meeting
January 4, 2013 Meeting Docs	2013-01-04 Meeting Docs
November 20, 2012 Candidates Review	2013-02-18 Meeting Docs
October 14, 2012 Survey Submissions	2013-02-18 Survey Submissions

Example 2: Sort first by type of Content, then by Date

Instead of	New format sorts by Content then Date
Candidates Review Nov 20 2012	Candidates Review 2012-11-20
Meeting Docs Feb 18 2013	Meeting Docs 2013-01-04
Meeting Docs Jan 4 2013	Meeting Docs 2013-02-18
Survey Submissions Feb 18 2013	Survey Submissions 2012-10-14
Survey Submissions Oct 14 2012	Survey Submissions 2013-02-18
Year End Meeting Dec 10 2012	Year End Meeting 2012-12-10

Note: You may be tempted to leave out the year in this equation, but the sorting won’t work if your content ever spans more than one calendar year, as you can see with the 2 “Survey Submissions” folders.