Sorting a board

Five sort modes, each ascending or descending, set independently per board.

Using DeskDrawerUpdated 7 August 2026DeskDrawer 1.2.5

Sorting is a property of one Board, not of the application. That is the point: different boards want different orders.

Open the Sorting submenu from the Board menu.

ModeOrder
ManualThe order you dragged icons into
NameAlphabetical by display name
TypeGrouped by file type
SizeBy file size
DateBy date created

Each automatic mode has an ascending and a descending direction, chosen from the same submenu.

Manual order is a real order#

Manual does not mean unsorted. Dragging an icon within a board sets its position, that position is stored in config.json, and it survives restarts. Switching to an automatic mode and back returns the manual arrangement you had — it is remembered, not discarded.

Choosing per board#

A worked example of why per-board sorting exists:

  • Installers — by date, descending. The one you just downloaded is at the top.
  • Projects — by name. You know what it is called, so you can find it.
  • Today — manual. It is a work surface; things are where you put them.

What sorting does not do#

Sorting changes the drawing order of icons inside a board. It does not rename, move, group or touch any file, and it does not change which board an icon belongs to. See Board membership.