Importing photos from Documents folder into Photos without sorting by date added

After they have been imported and not renamed previously you can use these Apple Scripts:

Batch Change Title to Text w/Padded Sequential Numbers

Batch Change Title to Capture Date-Description-Padded Sequential Numbers

to retitle them and then when exported use the Title as the new file name.

mlb414 wrote: … I have a folder of photos in documents in a specific order I want to import to PHOTOS to make a slide show. I check the box at the top on the review import that says KEEP IN FILE order

I don't think that I have ever seen "KEEP IN FILE order" in Photos. Are you thinking about another app?

Photos does have as part of the Import routine the option to "Keep Folder Organization"

which puts pictures that were in the same Finder folder into the same Photos Album, but the order they appear in the album depends on the sort order you choose in the album.

Once the pictures are in an album in Photos, you can move them around into any order you like. For me, once I get them into an order I like, I use the 3rd party app Photos Workbench($30) to add title that include an index to preserve the order.

I sometimes do the same thing to picture files before I import them to Photos. I use the 3rd party app GraphicConverter ($40) to add an index to the filename. There are other cheaper and more limited apps to change filenames.

If you're making a slideshow project, then you can re-arrange pictures in the slideshow, itself.

Old Toad wrote: …You'll need to rename them with an app like Name Mangler . You can rename them with the same name followed by a sequential number

mlb414, That's great-- but do this ONLY IN FINDER, before pictures are imported--- don't try messing with the names of files after they've been imported to Photos!

Photos has its own system, and changing the files without using the Photos app (or a few apps that use the Photos routines) can corrupt the database. That would be bad. "Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light." "Right. That's bad."

You'll need to rename them with an app like Name Mangler . You can rename them with the same name followed by a sequential number like this: