Tables > Sorting tables

You can let Write sort the rows of a table by choosing the ribbon command Table | Sort table.

Note: This command is applicable only to tables. If you want to sort ordinary paragraphs of text, see the next section Sorting text.

To have Write sort the rows of a table, proceed as follows:

1.	Position the text cursor in any cell of the table.

Alternatively: If you want only part of the table to be sorted, select the rows to be sorted.

2.	Choose the ribbon command Table \| group Data \| Sort table .

Alternatively, you will find the command on the ribbon tab Home | group Paragraph | Sort text/table. For more information, see the next paragraph Sorting text.

3.	In the dialog box, select the column whose contents are to be used as the basis of the sort. If desired, you can specify multiple columns as sort criteria (see below).

4.	Confirm with OK.

The table rows are now sorted according to the contents of the selected column(s).

The options in the dialog box for this command have the following functions:

Sort by:

Here, you specify the column whose contents are to be used as the basis of the sort.

You can also specify the sort order: Ascending (A..Z) or Descending (Z..A).

Type

Normally, you use the default setting Text for this option. If the column contains dates, however, select Date. If it contains numbers, select Number.

Background information: Columns can contain text, numbers or dates. This affects the sort order. For example, dates are sorted correctly only if you select Date as the type – the Text type would not attempt to recognize days, months and years in a date.

Then sort by

You can specify more than one sort criterion if necessary.

If, for example, the first column contains last names, and the second column contains first names, you can select the first column for Sort by and the second column for Then sort by. As a result, the rows of the table will be sorted by last name and those rows containing the same last name will then be sorted by first name.

First row contains headings

If the first row of your table contains headings, you should enable this option to prevent Write from including the first row in the sort.

Example: A table contains addresses. The first row contains headings like "Name", "Street", "City", etc. In a case like this, you should enable this option to ensure that the headings remain in the first row and are not included in the sort.

Case-sensitive

If you enable this option, sorting distinguishes between uppercase and lowercase letters. For example, all words that begin with a lowercase letter end up in front of the words that begin with a capital letter:

Disabled: Apples, bananas, Cherries. Enabled: bananas, Apples, Cherries.

Include cell formats

This option determines whether only the contents of the cells or also their formatting should be sorted:

Disabled: Only the cell contents are sorted; the original formatting of the table is thus retained.

Enabled: Each row that is moved to a different place by sorting takes its formatting (shading, margins, alignment, rotation) to the new position.