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[Feature]: Control the order of many files before converting or merging #927

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Description

@arielsrossi

What would you like Filee to do?

Make it easier to collect many files and control their order before a conversion or a merge, with both the mouse and the keyboard.

Today, when several files are dropped on the Home page, each drop converts or opens the donut right away, so a batch can't be built up over several drops. The merge order window also sorts files by name and lists them as plain text, which makes a long list hard to scan and to reorder.

Why / when would you use it?

When merging many PDFs or pictures, for example scanned pages or a folder of receipts:

  • files arrive in several drops, and the first drop already starts a conversion;
  • the order is set by name, and fixing it means selecting a row and pressing Alt+Up / Alt+Down one step at a time;
  • the file list is text only, so it's hard to tell files apart, and a wrong file can only be removed through a separate step;
  • there is no keyboard way to move through the files and act on them.

Ideas for how it could work

  • Dropping or picking files on the Home page adds them to a list below the drop zone. A button starts the donut for the list, in the order shown.
  • Each file shows a thumbnail (the first page for a PDF, the picture for an image), its place in the order, and an X to remove it.
  • Order can be changed by dragging a card, or with the keyboard: left and right arrows move the selection, Alt+Up and Alt+Down move the selected file, and Delete removes it.
  • The merge order window uses the same cards and keys.

This overlaps with #860 (reorder and remove before merging) and discussion #669 (thumbnails and order before an images → PDF merge). I'm happy to discuss the open questions here before any pull request:

  • Should the list replace the donut when files are dropped, or come in alongside it (for example only when a second file is dropped)?
  • Should it live only on the Home page, or also in the Edit PDF pages window, which already has a thumbnail strip with reordering?

Activity

  1. KnifeLemon commented on Nov 1, 2026

    @KnifeLemon
    Owner

    Thanks for laying out the open questions, @arielsrossi. Here are the answers, so #928 can follow them.

    Replace the donut, or sit alongside it?

    A setting, off by default.

    • Off: a drop on the Home page opens the donut as today, for one file or many.
    • On: dropped and picked files collect in the list, and Choose action opens the donut for them in the order shown.

    Browser drops follow the same setting.

    Home only, or Edit PDF pages too?

    Home and the merge-order window, as #928 does. Edit PDF pages already has its own thumbnail strip with reordering, so it stays as it is.

    The full review of #928 is on the PR.

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