Sort order

[Roger Morris]

Is it possible to make Word sort in 'dictionary order'?

For example the three words/multiples: "blackboard", "blackcap" and
"black box", when sorted by Word appear in the order

Black box
Blackboard
Blackcap

No surprise there, that's what I would expect a computer to do.

But my (hard copy) dictionary lists them in the order:

Blackboard
Black box
Blackcap

and that is the order many people will sort a pack of title cards into
if asked to do so.

I have seen it referred to as 'dictionary order' and it seems to be
achieved by completely ignoring spaces. I would like to achieve this in
Word without going to a lot of trouble to doctor the list, which can be
of hundreds of titles each made up of one-to-many words.

Using Mac OS X 10.3.1 and Office 10.1.5

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word]]

Hi Roger:

In the trade, that's known as a "word by word" sort, as opposed to what a
computer naturally does, which is a "letter by letter" sort in which spaces
are significant (because as we all know, a "space" is a letter, not a
"nothing").

Yes, you can do this in Word:

1) Create your list to be sorted, one entry per paragraph.
2) Select the list and use Table>Convert>Text to Table. Allow it to create
a single-column table.
3) Select the table column and use Table>Insert>Columns... To add a column
4) In one of the columns, use Find/replace to replace all spaces with
"nothing". (Check in the replace with box to make sure it really is
nothing, and not a space).
4b) You may want to highlight this column and use Format>Change Case>...
And change the whole column to either all uppercase or all lower case so you
do not get any other surprises.
5) Use Table>Sort and sort by the column from which you just removed the
spaces.
6) Save the document
7) Select the column by which you sorted and delete it.
8) Select the whole table and convert it back to Text.

There you go


This responds to article

Is it possible to make Word sort in 'dictionary order'?

For example the three words/multiples: "blackboard", "blackcap" and
"black box", when sorted by Word appear in the order

Black box
Blackboard
Blackcap

No surprise there, that's what I would expect a computer to do.

But my (hard copy) dictionary lists them in the order:

Blackboard
Black box
Blackcap

and that is the order many people will sort a pack of title cards into
if asked to do so.

I have seen it referred to as 'dictionary order' and it seems to be
achieved by completely ignoring spaces. I would like to achieve this in
Word without going to a lot of trouble to doctor the list, which can be
of hundreds of titles each made up of one-to-many words.

Using Mac OS X 10.3.1 and Office 10.1.5

--

Please respond only to the newsgroup to preserve the thread.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. GMT + 10 Hrs
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Roger Morris]

Thanks John,

That is a good solution and is actually quicker to do than to describe.

(Can I suggest step 3 should end with:
... To add a column and then paste all data into it)

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word]]

I'm glad you added that That was indeed supposed to be Step 4

I'm working on a bouncing train on the way to work using a beta version of
Entourage... My MVP computing has a "character" quite unique...

Cheers


This responds to article

Thanks John,

That is a good solution and is actually quicker to do than to describe.

(Can I suggest step 3 should end with:
... To add a column and then paste all data into it)

--

Please respond only to the newsgroup to preserve the thread.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. GMT + 10 Hrs
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]