Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
From: clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Kathy Strong)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Alphabetic listing of icons?  Also, clean up without overlap.
Summary: If you think this is a basic question, just type 'n'
Message-ID: <42533@ut-emx.uucp>
Date: 15 Jan 91 02:12:08 GMT
References: <687@mephisto.edu>
Sender: news@ut-emx.uucp
Reply-To: clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Kathy Strong)
Distribution: comp
Lines: 41

In article <687@mephisto.edu> ashwin@cc.gatech.edu (Ashwin Ram) writes:
>Is there any way to re-order the icons in a folder so that they appear
>alphabetically?  I want to display the icons in the "Show by icon" or "Show
>by small icon" format but I want them to be listed (and maintained)
>alphabetically.
>
To do this, select all the icons, change to View by Name, drag them all
onto the desktop, immediately drag them back to the window (easy if you 
don't accidentally de-select them!), and change to View by [Small] Icon.
They will be arranged left to right, top to bottom, in alpha order.

>Also, is there a way to get "Clean up window" to move icons (or small icons)
>into appropriate array positions such that they do not obscure or overlap one
>another?  E.g., if an icon has a long name attached to it, the next array
>position over to the right might be left empty (or whatever); otherwise it
>would be the same arrangement as "Clean up window" normally creates.
>
There are two ways to do this. Easy way: find a little program called
Layout and with it, offset every other icon vertically. (That is, rather
than lining straight across, your icons will look like this:

  **        **        **        **
       **        **        **

Hard way (not really so hard, but more dangerous): Use ResEdit to open your
Finder; open the LAYO resource; open the one thing listed in that window
(ID=128? something like that). Scroll down to the box labeled Icon Vertical
Phase (Phase, not Spacing) and change it from 0 to, oh, about 20. (Do not
use 32--I'm told that using a number exactly half of the Vertical Spacing
[which is usually 64] will cause some unspecified but dire result.) Close
everything and save. The usual ResEdit disclaimer here: Work only on a
copy of your Finder; do not attempt this on an original. 

--K

-- 
...........................................................................
:   Kathy Strong               :  "Try our Hubble-Rita: just one shot,     :
:  (Clouds moving slowly)      :   and everything's blurry"                :
:   clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu  :                           --El Arroyo     :
:..........................................................................: