<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
      type="topic" style="task"
      id="files-sort">

  <info>
    <link type="guide" xref="files#common-file-tasks"/>

    <revision pkgversion="3.6.0" version="0.2" date="2012-09-25" status="review"/>
    <revision pkgversion="3.13.92" date="2014-09-22" status="review"/>
    <revision pkgversion="3.18" date="2015-09-29" status="final"/>
    <revision version="gnome:45" date="2024-03-04" status="final"/>

    <credit type="author">
      <name>Phil Bull</name>
      <email>philbull@gmail.com</email>
    </credit>
    <credit type="author">
      <name>Jim Campbell</name>
      <email>jwcampbell@gmail.com</email>
    </credit>
    <credit type="editor">
      <name>Michael Hill</name>
      <email>mdhillca@gmail.com</email>
    </credit>

    <include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>

    <desc>Arrange files by name, size, type, or when they were changed.</desc>
  </info>

<title>Sort files and folders</title>

<comment>
 <p>May benefit from figures illustrating the different views.</p>
</comment>

<p>You can sort files in different ways in a folder, for example by sorting them
in order of date or file size. See <link xref="#ways"/> below for a list of
common ways to sort files. See <link xref="nautilus-views"/> for information on
how to change the default sort order.</p>

<p>The way that you can sort files depends on the <em>folder view</em> that you
are using. You can change the current view using the list/grid button in the
toolbar.</p>

<section id="icon-view">
  <title>Grid view</title>

  <p>To sort files in a different order, click the view options button in the
  toolbar and choose <gui>A-Z</gui>, <gui>Z-A</gui>, <gui>Last Modified</gui>,
  <gui>First Modified</gui>, <gui>Size</gui>, or <gui>Type</gui>.</p>

  <p>As an example, if you select <gui>A-Z</gui>, the files will be sorted
  by their names, in alphabetical order. See <link xref="#ways"/> for other
  options.</p>

</section>

<section id="list-view">
  <title>List view</title>

  <p>To sort files in a different order, click one of the column headings in
  the file manager. For example, click <gui>Type</gui> to sort by file type.
  Click the column heading again to sort in the reverse order.</p>

  <p>For more sort options, click the view options button in the toolbar.</p>

  <p>In list view, you can show columns with more attributes and sort on those
  columns. Click the view options button in the toolbar, pick <gui>Visible
  Columns…</gui> and select the columns that you want to be visible. You will
  then be able to sort by those columns. See <link xref="nautilus-list"/> for
  descriptions of available columns.</p>

</section>

<section id="ways">
  <title>Ways of sorting files</title>

  <terms>
    <item>
      <title>A-Z</title>
      <p>Sorts alphabetically by the name of the file.</p>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Z-A</title>
      <p>Sorts alphabetically by the name of the file in reverse order.</p>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Last Modified</title>
      <p>Sorts by the date and time that a file was last changed. Sorts from
      newest to oldest.</p>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>First Modified</title>
      <p>Sorts by the date and time that a file was first changed. Sorts from
      oldest to newest.</p>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Size</title>
      <p>Sorts by the size of the file (how much disk space it takes up). Sorts
      from smallest to largest by default.</p>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Type</title>
      <p>Sorts alphabetically by the file type. Files of the same type are
      grouped together, then sorted by name.</p>
    </item>
  </terms>

</section>

</page>
