Sorting 3 individual columns

[Les]

I am using MS Word 97 and am having trouble sorting 3 columns of info. I
set up a table with 3 columns containing last names. All I want to do is
sort each individual column in alphabetical order and I can not seem to be
able to do it!!

Example

col 1 col 2 col3

D T Y
Z O C
A B G
F A B

For some unknown reason I cant figure out how to sort all 3 columns so that
each column is in alphabetical order. I have tried highlighting the whole
table which does not work, tried highlighting each column one at a time and
that does not work! Can someone please tell me what I am overlooking and if
you cant sort with a table what are my alternatives (practical only please)

Thanks in advance,

Les

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP - DELETE UPPERCASE CHARACT]

Hi Les,

You can sort with a table, but the sorting is done so that all of the items
on the one row remain together. In your case, to get each column sorted
alphabetically, the items on a row will not all be able to remain together.

The easiest way for you to get a sort of the type that you are after will be
to copy each column in turn and paste it as a separate one column table,
sort it, then copy and paste the cells back into the original column
location.
--
Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.
Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I'm not sure when this feature was introduced because I only recently became
aware of it, so it may not be available in Word 97, but try this.

1. Select the column you want to sort and go to Table | Sort.

2. Click the Options... button and in the Sort Options dialog, check the box
for "Sort column only."

3. Repeat for each column. Note that the "Sort column only" box remains
checked, so be sure to clear it after you've sorted all the columns.

 

[Les]

Hi Doug and thx Suzanne,

After I read my post I thought I better explain myself a bit more clearly.
I need to have a list of names that are all in alphabetical order. Sice
there are 57 names I thought I could build a 3 column table and sort it so
that the first entry in cell 1 of column 1 is the first sorted name and the
last cell in column 3 is the last sorted name. I hope I have made myself a
bit more clear and apologize for any confusion. Basically this is to allow
me to include a list of names in the bottom of my letter ie cc:

Thanks for your help,

Les

"Doug Robbins - Word MVP - DELETE UPPERCASE CHARACTERS FROM EMAIL ADDRESS"

 

[Les]

Hi,

Ok I solved the problem. Apparently you need to first set up 1 column and
place your list in it, then sort it then go to the columns icon and split
the table into 3 columns. This splits the single column into 3 parts
preserving the sort order you did in the previous step.

Thanks,

Les

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In that case you need to use snaking ("newspaper-style") columns instead of
a table. See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/UsingColumns.htm