Sorting Clips

The User Interface > ClipList > Sorting Clips

Click on a column heading to sort the Clips according to the data in the column. ClipMate understands alpha, numeric, and date sorts. Click again, to sort in the opposite direction. The direction and column of sorting can be different for each collection, so that you can have one collection sorted alphabetically, another sorted with new Clips on top, another with new Clips on the bottom.

One of the columns is the mysterious, but ever so important, "SortKey" column. This is used to sort the way YOU want. For example, if you have some Clips that you need at the top of the collection, you can re-order Clips by dragging and dropping them on one another, or using the right-click "move to top/bottom of sort order". OK, you've moved them, but now none of the usual sort criteria apply. Alphabetic is no good, neither is date or size. So we have this magical, mystical, user-defined sort column. As you move Clips around, the SortKey value changes, to reflect its position, relative to the two Clips that it falls between. If you drop a Clip between two Clips with SortKey values of 100 and 200, the dropped Clip will be assigned 150. So when you sort by SortKey, it comes up the way that you want it.

New Clips get assigned a new SortKey value of the Clip ID multiplied by 100. This means that the sequence grows automatically, and has lots of room between Clips. Don't worry, you won't run out of numbers! (The sortkey wraps around at a little over 2 billion.)

•	Tip: Sorting determines where new clips are placed. If you sort on the SortKey, ID, or Date/Time columns, then new clips will appear on the top, or bottom of the collection, depending on the direction of the sort.

•	Tip: For most uses, sorting by the SortKey column in descending order (largest on top) is the most useful, as it keeps the newest Clips on top and is sensitive to manual Clip movements within the collection.

•	Tip: To manually adjust the SortKey field you can right-click on a clip, and use the Property dialog to make the change. This is handy if you want to set a SortKey value to a very high number, so that the clip will be at the top of the sort order, every time that the collection is loaded.