If you have a list that needs to be sorted, be it alphabetized, by number, or by date, there is no reason to move the information to Excel and get it done there. You can do so using the sort function on Microsoft Word. Whether your list is in a table format or not, you can sort your information out without losing the order of the other items. Read on to find out how to do so quickly and easily.
Where Is Sort Button in Word?
The first thing to know is where the sort button actually is in word. And the answer is in the Paragraph section on the home tab:
How to Sort on Microsoft Word – Step by Step Instructions
The first thing you need to know is what you are actually trying to sort. There are quite a few different options and even though Word is good at identifying what you need to sort, you need to know it for yourself as well.
I’ll go through the following examples:
- How to alphabetize names plus amounts.
- How to arrange dates either earliest to latest or vice versa.
- Organizing numbers by either highest first or lowest first.
- Different paragraphs that you want organized alphabetically.
How Do You Alphabetize Names?
Looking at the information I’ve provided below you can see that there are numbers (weight) there as well. The reason I’ve added some numbers here as well is just to add another layer of complexity and show you that it’s really not too difficult to do.
Here is the sample table that I’m going to work with:
Goal Number 1 – Sort the Table to Show the Weight Descending
For this goal I’m going to sort the table to show the person with the highest weight on the top row. Therefore what I want to show is the Mia Johnson on the top row followed by Charlotte Brown and so on.
- Highlight the contents of the table by clicking on the top left corner. Alternatively, just click and hold your mouse till the contents are selected.
- Click on the sort button.
- The following dialog box appears:
Yours may not look exactly the same as mine. It just depends on the contents that you have selected.
Since we want to sort by weight, we need to change the sorting options.
- Click on Sort by and then select the field that you want to be the primary sort option. In this case, I’m going to select weight, which is column 3:
- As you can see, the Type has changed to Number which is what I wanted to happen.
- Since I have some people who have the same weight I want to sort those into alphabetical order as well. In order to do so I have to add a second sort parameter.
- As well as this, as this table has a header row, I need to select that as well.
As you can see, the Sort by and Then by fields have taken the names of the header row. The reason for this is that as soon as I clicked that option, those fields automatically updated themselves in order to make it easier for me to get what I want.
This is the result:
Looking at the information now, you see that the weight is now ordered in a descending fashion, from largest to smallest. As well as this, you can see that although there are two people with the same weight, Charlotte Brown appears before Sophia Jones, exactly how I wanted them to do so.
Goal Number 2 – How Do You Alphabetize Names?
Let’s change this up a little and instead of sorting the table by weight, I want to sort it by last names.
Here are the steps in order to alphabetize names:
- Highlight the table.
- Select sort.
- Ensure that the My list has headers is selected.
- From the first option, select Last Name and Ascending (from A-Z)
- In the second sort option, ensure that None is selected.
- Press OK and your table has been sorted Alphabetically.
Sorting Dates in Word
In order to sort dates you basically have to do exactly the same as if you were sorting anything else. However, for this post, let’s add one more line of complexity to our table that says what date the person was measured.
Here is the new table:
I’m going to sort this table by date, followed by weight, and then by the last name. This means that the first date will appear first. On this date, the person with the highest weight appears at the top. Following this, it will sort the last name. This only exists if there are two people who have the same last name and were measured on the same day. In order to make this happen, I’ve altered the table contents slightly in order to show you how this will look.
This is what I need to select:
And here is my result:
As you can see, the first sort ensured that all the dates appear sequentially. Only if there are two dates that are the same is the weight taken into account. For example on the 8th. And finally, if both of these parameters are the same, then the last name field is used to separate them to decide which one comes first on the list.
Therefore, even though we have a situation where two people are measured and actually weigh the same on the same day. However, since Sophia Jones comes before Ava Williams alphabetically, she appears first on the list.
How to Sort Paragraphs
Let’s say that you have a document, and you want to arrange the paragraphs alphabetically. For example, if you have a guide for work that is constantly being updated. It’s not written in order but should be presented alphabetically to ensure ease of use. You may not have written it in order but now you have to sort it out.
Here is a short example:
I want to make the paragraph called “Definition” the first and the rest of them appear alphabetically.
It’s important to note here that each of these paragraphs starts with a heading and then has some text in it. The reason will become clear when we look at the options in the sort dialog box.
To Sort Paragraphs Alphabetically do the following:
Since this information is one single document and there is nothing else on it, you don’t need to select the text but rather, you can start by selecting the sort option straight away.
When the sort dialog box opens, you will see that the text has been highlighted.
In the dialog box, you see the following options:
Since each of these entries starts with a heading, we want to sort this document by using the Headings option in the Sort by drop down box.
Click OK and you will see that the document is now ordered correctly:
If the entries were without headings, for example, the first words would be bold, such as we find in dictionaries, then you would use the paragraph setting.
In Closing
The sorting tool in Microsoft Word is extremely powerful for use in documents. Not only can you sort numbers, but you can sort dates, arrange things alphabetically and create some logic to it as well. I hope that you have enjoyed this walkthrough and as always, if you have any questions or comments, leave them below and I’ll do my best to answer them all. Good luck!