The problem relates to sorting and arranging my photo collection. My computer is running Windows Me and I use Ulead Photo Explorer to edit my photos. After editing the photos each photo is given a number and the photos are exported to a file in My Pictures. When opening the My Pictures directory to list the files, the entries are not listed in any order and the files can only be arranged by size, date, name or type - not by number. However, when opening the photos through Ulead Photo Explorer they are displayed in numerical order as required. However, I would like to copy the files to CD so they can be displayed on another computer with the photos in numerical order. My conclusion is Windows Me does not have the sorting capability by number, but may be I have missed something. None of the other sorting criteria are of any use, because sizes will change during editing, dates are not always relevant, and neither is type or name.

You are correct that Windows Me (and other Windows versions) do not support the sorting of files by criteria other than the four criteria included with Windows. It is likely that Ulead can sort by the number the photo has been assigned because Ulead has a catalog file within the image directory which contains the image ordering, and is read each time the Ulead is open. Alternatively, Ulead may be placing some custom meta-data into each image specifying the order of that image. In any case, it appears Ulead is the only program which can read this ordering data. The only way to make Windows arrange the images in numerical order, is to place a number at the beginning of the image name. For example: ‘1 First Image.JPG’ and ‘2′ Second Image.JPG’. When a number is used in the file name, Windows will order from lower numbers to higher numbers. So, by sorting the images by name you can artificially change the way the images are ordered. However, this can be cumbersome should you wish to change the order of the images at a later date (as you will need to change the name of all the images). If any other readers are aware of methods to numerically order images, such as that found in Ulead Photo Explorer, I would be very interested to have your feedback.