Why does Word sort my lists incorrectly?

  • Thread starter Thread starter -mike-
  • Start date Start date
M

-mike-

I have a listing of my DVD collection in word (2000), but when I click on
TABLE, A-Z SORT it does not sort the items correctly. For instance, here is
the correct alphabetical sorting sequence for the sample titles below:

The Office Christmas Special
The Office Complete First Series
The Office Complete Second Series
Thing, The (R1)
This Is Spinal Tap: Special Edition
Three Amigo's, The
Three Kings
Time Machine, The (R1)


But, if I sort the above titles in Word, I get the following result:

Thing, The (R1)
This Is Spinal Tap: Special Edition
The Office Christmas Special
Three Amigo's, The
Three Kings
Time Machine, The (R1)
The Office Complete First Series
The Office Complete Second Series

As you can see, the are multiple titles incorrectly sorted. This is just a
small portion of my list, This kind of thing happens all the way through it.

Sorting options are set to:

Sort by: Paragraph
Type: Text
Sort: Ascending

Is this some known bug in Word, and if so is there a fix for it?

Mike.
 
Hi Mike,

I tried using both the first and second list sorts in your
message and it sorted correctly.

If you copy and paste your list from the message you posted
into a new blank document and sort it do you get the same problem?
What do you have selected under the [Options] button in the
Sort dialog?

How are you creating and formatting your list?

=========
I have a listing of my DVD collection in word (2000), but when I click on
TABLE, A-Z SORT it does not sort the items correctly. For instance, here is
the correct alphabetical sorting sequence for the sample titles below:

The Office Christmas Special
The Office Complete First Series
The Office Complete Second Series
Thing, The (R1)
This Is Spinal Tap: Special Edition
Three Amigo's, The
Three Kings
Time Machine, The (R1)


But, if I sort the above titles in Word, I get the following result:

Thing, The (R1)
This Is Spinal Tap: Special Edition
The Office Christmas Special
Three Amigo's, The
Three Kings
Time Machine, The (R1)
The Office Complete First Series
The Office Complete Second Series

As you can see, the are multiple titles incorrectly sorted. This is just a
small portion of my list, This kind of thing happens all the way through it.

Sorting options are set to:

Sort by: Paragraph
Type: Text
Sort: Ascending

Is this some known bug in Word, and if so is there a fix for it?

Mike>>
 
Hi Bob,

I did as you advised and copied & pasted the unsorted list from my post into
a new Word document (File>New>Blank Document). I then highlighted the text,
and clicked on table>sort>ok and then a dialog box appeared with the message
"Word Found No Valid Records To Sort". I presume by that it assumed the
list was already in sorted order.

On the sort dialog options I have the following selected:

Separate fields at: Tabs
Sorting language: English (UK)

That is all that is selected.

Are you also using Word 2000 Bob?

My list is created by just opening a normal Word blank page and by typing
the titles in and pressing return after each line. AFAIK there is no
special formatting. I'll be happy to email you a copy of the original list
in Word format.

Mike.
 
I copied and pasted both of your lists into my Word 97 and got "Word Found
No Valid Records To Sort". However, when I viewed the 'non-printing'
characters I discovered that each line ends with a carriage return rather
than a new paragraph. Replacing the carriage returns with paragraphs and
then using sort works fine. hope this makes sense.

Michael
 
Gerry Atrick said:
I copied and pasted both of your lists into my Word 97 and got "Word Found
No Valid Records To Sort". However, when I viewed the 'non-printing'
characters I discovered that each line ends with a carriage return rather
than a new paragraph. Replacing the carriage returns with paragraphs and
then using sort works fine. hope this makes sense.

Michael
Click to expand...

I think you may have hit upon the answer Michael! I copied the text, then
dropped it into notepad (which stripped any non visible characters) then
loaded it back into Word as a text find and re-sorted it. Now it seems to
be fine.

Not really sure where I've gone wrong, or whether there is some kind of
operation I can do in Word to remove the problem!

Cheers,

Mike.
 
I think you may have hit upon the answer Michael! I copied the text, then
dropped it into notepad (which stripped any non visible characters) then
loaded it back into Word as a text find and re-sorted it. Now it seems to
be fine.

Not really sure where I've gone wrong, or whether there is some kind of
operation I can do in Word to remove the problem!

Cheers,

Mike.
Click to expand...

You can use Edit > Replace to do this. Click the More button. Put the
cursor in the Find What box, click the Special button, and select
"Manual line break". That puts the code ^l in the box. Then click in
the Replace With box, click Special, and select "Paragraph mark",
which puts the code ^p in the box. Click the Replace All button.
 
Hi Mike,
Message in text...
On 10/2/05 1:47 PM, in article J2V%[email protected],
"-mike-" <[email protected]> wrote:
Click to expand...
Hi Bob,

I did as you advised and copied & pasted the unsorted list from my post into
a new Word document (File>New>Blank Document). I then highlighted the text,
and clicked on table>sort>ok and then a dialog box appeared with the message
"Word Found No Valid Records To Sort". I presume by that it assumed the
list was already in sorted order.

On the sort dialog options I have the following selected:

Separate fields at: Tabs
Sorting language: English (UK)

That is all that is selected.

Are you also using Word 2000 Bob?

My list is created by just opening a normal Word blank page and by typing
the titles in and pressing return after each line. AFAIK there is no
special formatting.
Click to expand...

Normally you have to press Shift+Return to put line breaks in your document.
Your normal.dot template may contain some style formatting or autotext
setting or corruption, etc., to cause it to happen without the shift key
being held down. The link below will help you reset your normal.dot file.

I'll be happy to email you a copy of the original list
in Word format.

Mike.




Bob Buckland ?:-) said:
Hi Mike,

I tried using both the first and second list sorts in your
message and it sorted correctly.

If you copy and paste your list from the message you posted
into a new blank document and sort it do you get the same problem?
What do you have selected under the [Options] button in the
Sort dialog?

How are you creating and formatting your list?

=========
I have a listing of my DVD collection in word (2000), but when I click on
TABLE, A-Z SORT it does not sort the items correctly. For instance, here
is
the correct alphabetical sorting sequence for the sample titles below:

The Office Christmas Special
The Office Complete First Series
The Office Complete Second Series
Thing, The (R1)
This Is Spinal Tap: Special Edition
Three Amigo's, The
Three Kings
Time Machine, The (R1)


But, if I sort the above titles in Word, I get the following result:

Thing, The (R1)
This Is Spinal Tap: Special Edition
The Office Christmas Special
Three Amigo's, The
Three Kings
Time Machine, The (R1)
The Office Complete First Series
The Office Complete Second Series

As you can see, the are multiple titles incorrectly sorted. This is just
a
small portion of my list, This kind of thing happens all the way through
it.

Sorting options are set to:

Sort by: Paragraph
Type: Text
Sort: Ascending

Is this some known bug in Word, and if so is there a fix for it?

Mike>>
--
Bob Buckland ?:-)
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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