The sorting function

[phil from UCLA]

I've created a single column table in Word that has about 400 rows. Each row contains a transcript from a news broadcast orthe first six paragraphs from newspaper articles. Is there any way that I can randomize the order of the rows.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You could try sorting on Word 2.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
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I've created a single column table in Word that has about 400 rows. Each

row contains a transcript from a news broadcast orthe first six paragraphs
from newspaper articles. Is there any way that I can randomize the order of
the rows.

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Phil

I don't think Word has anything built-in to do this. But here is one
way.

Insert a new column into your Word table. In Excel, create a new file
and in a cell type =RAND() and press Enter. Copy that down the column to
fill 400 rows. Select all the random numbers and do Edit > Copy. Back in
Word, select the whole empty column you created and do Edit > Paste.
Now, click Table > Sort to sort by the random numbers. And then delete
the extraneous column in the table.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word
Melbourne, Australia

I've created a single column table in Word that has about 400 rows.

Each row contains a transcript from a news broadcast orthe first six
paragraphs from newspaper articles. Is there any way that I can
randomize the order of the rows.

 

[phil from UCLA]

Let me begin by saying how impressed I am with your responsiveness. Not just impressed. Stunned.
On to my problem: I came up with the same solution this morning.....after I sent the email, of course. I encountered two problems.

First: I created a column of random variables and copied them. Then I highlighted the second column and pasted the numbers in. The problem was that they all pasted into the first cell in the second column (B1). I assume that happened because the articles/transcripts in column 1 (A1:A400) are quite large, thereby making the cells in column 2 (B1:B400) quite large. So rather than winding up with one random number in each cell, I got 400 random numbers in cell B1. And, yes, I highlighted the second column before I pasted in the numbers.

So I decided to reverse the order in which I input the information. I created a new table (with two columns), and pasted the random numbers into the second column BEFORE I pasted in the articles. But this time, I decided to link the random numbers to the Excel spreadsheet. That way, I could just hit the delete button in the Excel spreadsheet which would change the random numbers in column 2 which would allow me to resort the articles. Pretty cool, I thought. So, I pasted the articles into column 1 but when I did, they were linked to the original document in the same way that the random numbers were linked to the Excel document. Now, there is a funky grey shading behind the text. Is there any way that I can resort the list and then save it so that it isn't linked any longer?