April 29, 2008

Sorting Data in Word

Have you ever found yourself wishing that a list you typed in MS Word could be alphabetized? Or, for those of you who are good with Excel, you're probably wondering why you didn't type it up in Excel in the first place (you know, where it's so easy to sort data).

Well, stop dwelling on the "should have, could have" stuff and smile. It's very easy to sort data in Word too!

Here's all you have to do!

The first thing is getting the list into Word, so go ahead and type away.

Note: If you want the list to be double spaced, you need to set the paragraph that way. Do not simply hit the Enter button twice! If you do, your list will become an editing nightmare and when the sorting is finished, it will put all of the blank spaces at the top of the list, leaving the data single spaced anyway.

Now that you've got the typing finished, let's move on.

Here's how you begin the sort (alphabetizing).

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Highlight the entire list.

In Word 2007, you'll need to locate the Sort button in the Paragraph section on the Home Ribbon.

For other versions of MS Word, you need to go to the Table menu, Sort choice.

In any event, the Sort Text dialogue window will open:

The default is set to Sort by Paragraphs, Type of Text, Ascending. That will make your list alphabetical A to Z. (Descending will reverse the list from Z to A).

At the bottom of the window, there's an option to tell the program your list has a header row (or title). If you highlighted a title with the data, you would use this option to prevent the program from sorting your title into the list. (In other words, the first row stays in place regardless of the first letter).

Click OK.

You will then be returned to the document and you should see your list in order.

Just like magic, everything is in its proper place!

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