How to sort multiple columns in a table ascending text?

[Holden]

I have a simple table with three columns containing straight text - a single
word in each cell. I would like to sort the contents of across all the
columns alphbetically.

Under Table>Sort> Columns are listed individually cannot select all three.
Under Table>Sort>Options Sort Column Only is ticked & greyed out - have
not been able to unselect this option.

Any help appreciated.

 

[Jezebel]

You can sort the table by one or optionally two columns. If I understand you
rightly you want to sort the rows (is that what you mean by 'across all the
columns'?) -- in which case, you can't do it in Word. Copy the table to
Excel, manipulate it there as you need, then copy it back.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You can't sort all three columns as a single list. For that you would need
newspaper-style columns. You could use Table | Convert | Table to Text,
separating with a paragraph mark, which would put the contents of each cell
in a separate paragraph. You can then use Table | Sort to sort the
paragraphs.

 

[Holden]

Hi Jezebel, I have a table which has 3 columns and contains plain text in
each cell. Currently each column is sorted A to Z. I would the sort to go
alphabetically across the 3 columns, ie: Column 1 starts with letter A and
Column 3 ends with letter Z with everything in between sorted alphabetically.
So sort would start down column 1, continue at top of column 2 and down,
then continue at top of column 3 and down. Hope this explains it a bit
better.

Have copied tabled into excel and am coming up against same problem.

Regards.

 

[Jezebel]

You're right. Excel won't do that either. However, moving cells around is
very easy. Put it all into one column, sort, split it back into three.