Word: How sort by date with incomplete dates (eg year only)?

[The Horse]

Word 2007:
I'm constantly creating chronologies where some of the dates are just "May
2003" or even just "2003". When I sort by date, such things are moved to the
front as if they are not dates at all. Is there some way it can be made to
work (possibly involving formatting of dates such as "0.0.2003" or "0.5.2003"
(d/m/y order, UnAmerican I know, but I'm not American).

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I haven't tried it in Word 2007, but in previous versions, if you tell Word
to sort by date, it sorts mixed dates perfectly well. It will indeed sort
2003 to the top of all other 2003 dates and May 2003 to the top of all other
dates in May 2003, but what else would you have it do?

 

[The Horse]

Thanks, but it sorts ALL the just-year dates to the top (and doesn't
recognise them as dates, which is shown by offering "number" as the basis for
sorting next time you sort by the "dates" column), then sorts the full dates
(which it does recognise).

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Now that you mention it, I think I did have to use 1/1/2003 or the like. You
can always format the 1/1/ as white; Word will still see it.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

YYYYMMDD always sorts correctly (unless you have to deal with different
calendars and so on), so is a good working format, but falls down on the
display/readability front. It depnds on which is more important.

Peter Jamieson