How to import a folder full of pictures, one per page, alphabetically in InDesign

Question

I'm trying to import a folder full of pictures (bar codes), one per page in alphabetical order into InDesign.

I've found the following link which shows how to create a script that will turn the images into a CSV file which I can then data merge into InDesign.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfDojdhILig

The problem I'm having is that the script creates a CSV file but the images aren't listed in alphabetical order. I'm assuming there might be a default where they are imported by file size. If I reorder the images alphabetically in the CSV file the data merge changes from 'images' to 'text'. I would normally just import the images one by one but on this occasion, I have 5,000 (numbered SPA200001 to SPA205001).

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Answer 1

You probably don't need a script for this.

Just running this command in your particular folder using the command prompt ('cmd') in Windows will generate that list for you, alphabetically.

dir /on /b >> list.csv

It will just be a plain text file in this format:

image 1

image 2

image 3

... 

image 5000

Then, add this at the top of that text file:

@image

Then, setup and import using Data Merge as seen in most tutorials.