sorting problem

[ucsd]

I have a list of topics with subtopics, initially not sorted. When I use sort
the program generally complied, i.e., take main topics alphabetically and
(indented) subtopics also alphabetically within main tpics, BUT every now and
then it just makes a plain mistake, e.g., it takes a subtopic and lists it by
itself or it takes a subtopic and lists it under a main topic different from
what it is in the presorting list. Error rate about 10% - previously had no
problems.

Thanks.

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hello George

I have a list of topics with subtopics, initially not sorted. When I use sort
the program generally complied, i.e., take main topics alphabetically and
(indented) subtopics also alphabetically within main tpics, BUT every now and
then it just makes a plain mistake, e.g., it takes a subtopic and lists it by
itself or it takes a subtopic and lists it under a main topic different from
what it is in the presorting list. Error rate about 10% - previously had no
problems.

Could you describe the structure of your entries a bit? Are you dealing
with a table? Or with paragraphs, where topics/subtopics are separated
by a special character? ISTR that there is a maximum string length that
Word takes into account when sorting, but we need to know more to judge
whether this could be a case here.

Greetings from good old Europe
[And say Hi to retired Prof. Marti when you see him ]
Robert

 

[ucsd]

This is in response to Robert Franz. Actually I am working on a subject
index for a book. As I go through the manuscript I set up main topics and
sometimes indented under them one or more subtopics - none of these entries
are particularly long (1-5 words) so It looks like this:

Main entry
Subentry i
Subentry 2
Main entry 2
Subentry

In the past I have had no problem for "sort" to alphbetize the Main entries
and then under each to alphabetize the subentries. What has happened now is
that a subentry would float on it own and a subentry from one main entry
would appear as a sub entry under another main entry. As I said it happens
seldon but it is consistent - the same error occurs each time I sort the
material.

Thank you for any comments.
--
George Mandler
Retired Professor
U Calif, San Diego

Hello George

I have a list of topics with subtopics, initially not sorted. When I use sort
the program generally complied, i.e., take main topics alphabetically and
(indented) subtopics also alphabetically within main tpics, BUT every now and
then it just makes a plain mistake, e.g., it takes a subtopic and lists it by
itself or it takes a subtopic and lists it under a main topic different from
what it is in the presorting list. Error rate about 10% - previously had no
problems.

Could you describe the structure of your entries a bit? Are you dealing
with a table? Or with paragraphs, where topics/subtopics are separated
by a special character? ISTR that there is a maximum string length that
Word takes into account when sorting, but we need to know more to judge
whether this could be a case here.

Greetings from good old Europe
[And say Hi to retired Prof. Marti when you see him ]
Robert
--
/"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | MS
\ / | MVP
X Against HTML | for
/ \ in e-mail & news | Word

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Instead of doing this manually, why not generate an index automatically? See
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/Createindex.htm

This is in response to Robert Franz. Actually I am working on a subject
index for a book. As I go through the manuscript I set up main topics and
sometimes indented under them one or more subtopics - none of these entries
are particularly long (1-5 words) so It looks like this:

Main entry
Subentry i
Subentry 2
Main entry 2
Subentry

In the past I have had no problem for "sort" to alphbetize the Main entries
and then under each to alphabetize the subentries. What has happened now is
that a subentry would float on it own and a subentry from one main entry
would appear as a sub entry under another main entry. As I said it happens
seldon but it is consistent - the same error occurs each time I sort the
material.

Thank you for any comments.
--
George Mandler
Retired Professor
U Calif, San Diego

Hello George

I have a list of topics with subtopics, initially not sorted. When I use sort
the program generally complied, i.e., take main topics alphabetically and
(indented) subtopics also alphabetically within main tpics, BUT every now and
then it just makes a plain mistake, e.g., it takes a subtopic and lists it by
itself or it takes a subtopic and lists it under a main topic different from
what it is in the presorting list. Error rate about 10% - previously had no
problems.

Could you describe the structure of your entries a bit? Are you dealing
with a table? Or with paragraphs, where topics/subtopics are separated
by a special character? ISTR that there is a maximum string length that
Word takes into account when sorting, but we need to know more to judge
whether this could be a case here.

Greetings from good old Europe
[And say Hi to retired Prof. Marti when you see him ]
Robert
--
/"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | MS
\ / | MVP
X Against HTML | for
/ \ in e-mail & news | Word

 

[ucsd]

Thank you Suzanne for the suggestion - I had brielfy looked before and now
did again in depth, but for separate name and subjects indexes and for a
subject index that has few 1 or 2-term entries, mostly summary statements,
"indexing" becomes cumbersone. But thanks for the suggestion.
--
George Mandler
Retired Professor
U Calif, San Diego

Instead of doing this manually, why not generate an index automatically? See
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/Createindex.htm

This is in response to Robert Franz. Actually I am working on a subject
index for a book. As I go through the manuscript I set up main topics and
sometimes indented under them one or more subtopics - none of these entries
are particularly long (1-5 words) so It looks like this:

Main entry
Subentry i
Subentry 2
Main entry 2
Subentry

In the past I have had no problem for "sort" to alphbetize the Main entries
and then under each to alphabetize the subentries. What has happened now is
that a subentry would float on it own and a subentry from one main entry
would appear as a sub entry under another main entry. As I said it happens
seldon but it is consistent - the same error occurs each time I sort the
material.

Thank you for any comments.
--
George Mandler
Retired Professor
U Calif, San Diego

Hello George

ucsd wrote:
I have a list of topics with subtopics, initially not sorted. When I use sort
the program generally complied, i.e., take main topics alphabetically and
(indented) subtopics also alphabetically within main tpics, BUT every now and
then it just makes a plain mistake, e.g., it takes a subtopic and lists it by
itself or it takes a subtopic and lists it under a main topic different from
what it is in the presorting list. Error rate about 10% - previously had no
problems.

Could you describe the structure of your entries a bit? Are you dealing
with a table? Or with paragraphs, where topics/subtopics are separated
by a special character? ISTR that there is a maximum string length that
Word takes into account when sorting, but we need to know more to judge
whether this could be a case here.

Greetings from good old Europe
[And say Hi to retired Prof. Marti when you see him ]
Robert
--
/"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | MS
\ / | MVP
X Against HTML | for
/ \ in e-mail & news | Word

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hello George

Thank you Suzanne for the suggestion - I had brielfy looked before and now
did again in depth, but for separate name and subjects indexes and for a
subject index that has few 1 or 2-term entries, mostly summary statements,
"indexing" becomes cumbersone. But thanks for the suggestion.

Hmm, I don't see more effort in defining the XE fields (index entries)
than in writing the index manually, _especially_ if the index contains
few entries only. How many page numbers are you listing per entry? If
the answer is (almost always) "one", then this is the most simple index
you can get.

But you want to do it manually and sort, so let's see.

<quote>
Main entry
Subentry i
Subentry 2
Main entry 2
Subentry
</quote>

Are you having one paragraph per main entry (i.e., you end a line with
SHIFT-Return until before the next main entry -- or all lines with a
normal RETURN?

Greetings
Robert

 

[ucsd]

All lines with a normal return, e.g., from main antry to sub or from sub to
sub.

BTW - you said you are in Europe - I am currently in London

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

All lines with a normal return, e.g., from main antry to sub or from sub to
sub.

Hmm, and the paragraph of subentries are indented? I don't really see
how Word will sort those at all, in that case (I mean, how it would know
to keep them under each main entry ...).

BTW - you said you are in Europe - I am currently in London

Greetings from Switzerland
Robert

 

[ucsd]

I dont know how it is done, but usually it works fine

George

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Are you using Table | Sort or some kind of add-in?

 

[ucsd]

Using Table and then Sort

George

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

And are you sorting in Outline view? If not, are you sure you don't have
line breaks between main entries and subentries? I can't imagine any other
way it would work.

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hello George

I dont know how it is done, but usually it works fine

Bad
I received an email from you as a follow-up on this thread, but the
postmaster of the outgoing message has wiped out the attachment because
he didn't like "ZIP" ("forbidden name").

And (more bad news, I'm afraid), on my answer, I received

Technical details of permanent failure:
PERM_FAILURE: DNS Error: Domain name not found

If you can, try sending the file with another email tool or service.

Like Suzanne, I cannot really imagine how Word would correctly sort
these entries unless it's in a table or in one para per main topic,
something like that. [That doesn't mean it's not capable of it, just
that we don't know! ]

Greetings
Robert

 

[ucsd]

Suzanne and Robert,

Thnk you for all your efforts. I am now finishing the index as I have been
and correct the glitches manually. Next time I'll know better.

George

PS Robert - I didnt send any attachments etc. dont know where that stuff
came from
--
George Mandler
Retired Professor
U Calif, San Diego

Hello George

I dont know how it is done, but usually it works fine

Bad
I received an email from you as a follow-up on this thread, but the
postmaster of the outgoing message has wiped out the attachment because
he didn't like "ZIP" ("forbidden name").

And (more bad news, I'm afraid), on my answer, I received

Technical details of permanent failure:
PERM_FAILURE: DNS Error: Domain name not found

If you can, try sending the file with another email tool or service.

Like Suzanne, I cannot really imagine how Word would correctly sort
these entries unless it's in a table or in one para per main topic,
something like that. [That doesn't mean it's not capable of it, just
that we don't know! ]

Greetings
Robert
--
/"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | MS
\ / | MVP
X Against HTML | for
/ \ in e-mail & news | Word

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Thnk you for all your efforts. I am now finishing the index as I have been
and correct the glitches manually. Next time I'll know better.

George

PS Robert - I didnt send any attachments etc. dont know where that stuff
came from

Ahh, that does indeed make sense. Maybe somebody else saw the offer and
tried to send something ugly ...

Anyway, glad it works for you now, somehow.

Greetings
Robert