Reorder documents and folders

The tree on the left shows the documents and folders of each folder in the order you give them. Sites that show your content, such as a documentation site, can follow that order. You set it by dragging, or with the row menu if you do not use a mouse.

The CMS keeps the order for you. You never type a number.

How the tree is sorted

Documents and folders are sorted together in each folder. Items you have placed come first, in your order. Items you have not placed yet, such as a new document or a folder you just made, follow them, sorted by title or folder name.

Each folder has its own order. Moving something in one folder never changes another folder.

Reorder by dragging

1. Press and hold a document or folder row, then drag it.
2. Move between two rows of the same folder.
3. Release.

Expected result: the row sits in its new place.

• You can drag a folder in among documents, and a document in among folders.
• Dropping onto a folder row (the row is highlighted, not a line between rows) moves the item into that folder. See Moving to another folder.
• Dropping between rows of a different folder does nothing. To put an item into another folder, drop it onto that folder.

Reorder with the row menu

This works with the keyboard and with a screen reader.

1. Open the row’s menu (the three dots on its row).
2. Choose Move up, Move down, Move to top or Move to bottom.

Expected result: the row moves, and a screen reader says, for example, “Moved “Reference” to position 2 of 5”.

A choice is greyed out when nothing would change. At the top of the folder, Move up and Move to top are off. In a folder with one item all four are off, with the hint “Nothing else in this folder”.

What happens to published content

The order is part of what a site reads, so it reaches the lake.

• Published items are updated at once. The CMS makes one small commit, Reorder: <folder>, that changes only the items whose place changed. It is a separate change: you do not publish anything yourself.
• The text of a document is never published by a reorder. If a published document has a newer draft, the draft stays unpublished. A reorder does not add the “Unpublished changes” dot to a document.
• Drafts keep their place until they are published. A document that was never published is only ordered in the CMS. When you publish it, it goes into the lake in the place it has in the tree.
• A site does not change by itself. As with every commit, a site shows the new order after a developer refreshes its lock and builds it (Refresh content).

The first time you reorder a folder where nothing has been placed yet, the CMS may give several items in it a place, so that the result is what you dropped. That one commit can then change several published files. Later reorders usually change one.

Moving to another folder

When you move a document or folder into another folder (Folders and tags), it loses its place. It goes after the items already placed in the new folder, sorted by title or name with the other unplaced items. Drag it to where you want it afterwards.

Renaming a folder, or moving it within its own parent, keeps its place. Moving a folder to another parent keeps the order inside it.

If something goes wrong

What’s next

• Organise folders and tags: Folders and tags.
• Make a document visible to sites: Publishing.
• For developers, how the order is stored and used: Lake format.