# Transferring files...numbers all askew... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 29, 2014, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transferring-files-numbers-all-askew/696817 "2014-08-29T00:38:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transferring-files-numbers-all-askew/696817/1 "2014-08-29T00:38:48Z")
I have transferred files to my Nextbook. They are PNG file pics which is from a book of text, which I have scanned, so I could read it from my tablet (out of copyright, and cannot get an ebook). I numbered the pics in standard order, 1,2,3…109, 110. They appear in my file folder in my PC in that order. In my Nextbook, the file, “Special Book” is in the Internal Memory file. So, I go to IM, then I click on my “SB” files. The pages are in the following order: 1,10, **100,101,102,103,104,105,106,107,108,109** ,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19, **2, 20, 21…** etc… [bolding to highlight, not the way it appears in file]. You can see my problem. Can you give me info on how to renumber my pages, or how to transfer the files so that the pages appear in correct order? I thought of using hypens, dots, etc instead of 0s, but, rather than experiment, I thought some of you may be able to help me out. Thanks, hh ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transferring-files-numbers-all-askew/696817/2 "2014-08-29T00:47:55Z")
The filenames are sorted as text, not as numbers. To make sure they are ordered correctly, you need to number them as 001, 002, 003… 010, 011 … 100, 101, etc. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transferring-files-numbers-all-askew/696817/3 "2014-08-29T02:15:10Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > The filenames are sorted as text, not as numbers. To make sure they are ordered correctly, you need to number them as 001, 002, 003… 010, 011 … 100, 101, etc. I’m a thankin’ ye, **scr4**!🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transferring-files-numbers-all-askew/696817/4 "2014-08-29T03:09:08Z")
I’m guessing that on your PC they were ordered by creation date-time and since they were created in numerical order, that’s why they appeared as such in the PC without the leading 0s. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transferring-files-numbers-all-askew/696817/5 "2014-08-29T04:59:21Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > The filenames are sorted as text, not as numbers. To make sure they are ordered correctly, you need to number them as 001, 002, 003… 010, 011 … 100, 101, etc. An [ASCII Chart](https://www.google.com/search?q=ascii+chart&espv=2&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=WQgAVLWqDMmBygT94YGYDA&sqi=2&ved=0CCcQsAQ&biw=1745&bih=1030#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=tFDaWIkU9WcTeM%253A%3Bj_HbC1ewNtI0mM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fupload.wikimedia.org%252Fwikipedia%252Fcommons%252F1%252F1b%252FASCII-Table-wide.svg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fcommons.wikimedia.org%252Fwiki%252FFile%253AASCII-Table-wide.svg%3B875%3B582)may help here, yes? ---
**Author:** ![andrewm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@andrewm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewm)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transferring-files-numbers-all-askew/696817/6 "2014-08-29T13:32:30Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I’m guessing that on your PC they were ordered by creation date-time and since they were created in numerical order, that’s why they appeared as such in the PC without the leading 0s. Windows Explorer’s “sort by name” algorithm has logic built in to handle sorting numbers in text numerically (rather than strictly by comparing the raw bytes). Inexpensive/embedded products (like the eBook reader in question) often don’t bother with this logic. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transferring-files-numbers-all-askew/696817/7 "2014-08-29T13:45:34Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > An [ASCII Chart](https://www.google.com/search?q=ascii+chart&espv=2&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=WQgAVLWqDMmBygT94YGYDA&sqi=2&ved=0CCcQsAQ&biw=1745&bih=1030#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=tFDaWIkU9WcTeM%253A%3Bj_HbC1ewNtI0mM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fupload.wikimedia.org%252Fwikipedia%252Fcommons%252F1%252F1b%252FASCII-Table-wide.svg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fcommons.wikimedia.org%252Fwiki%252FFile%253AASCII-Table-wide.svg%3B875%3B582)may help here, yes? Not exactly. There is no universal rule for sorting text, so different software & operating systems end up sorting things in different order. And most systems don’t sort by ASCII code - if you did that, all lowercase letters would be before all uppercase letters (a…z,A…Z). Also, many filesystems allow non-ASCII characters for filenames. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transferring-files-numbers-all-askew/696817/8 "2014-08-29T21:55:38Z")
Not sure what operating system your netbook is running, but this is an option you can configure for Windows Vista and later. By default it should sort them like humans would (1, 2, 10) but you can also change it to the old way if you want (1, 10, 2): > **[How to Disable Numerical File Name Sorting and Enable Classic Literal Sorting...](https://www.askvg.com/how-to-disable-numerical-file-name-sorting-and-enable-classic-literal-sorting-in-windows-xp-vista-and-7-explorer/)** > > If you are a Windows XP or later OS user, you might have noticed that Windows Explorer uses a different kind of sorting mechanism for file names containing numb ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2014, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transferring-files-numbers-all-askew/696817/9 "2014-08-29T22:46:01Z")
As scr4 points out, your file names should have leading zeros, so they’re named 001, 002, 003, 004, etc. Then they’ll appear in order. Here’s a very handy utility for renaming a bunch of files very fast: [Bulk Rename Utility](http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php). Renaming the files so the file names all have leading zeros would just take a couple of minutes.