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Dec 22, 2009, 1:18am

Building A Home RR :: General :: Technical Help - Computers and Electronics :: Complex sorting in MS Word

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Topic: Complex sorting in MS Word (Read 68 times)

housewitch
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Complex sorting in MS Word
« Thread Started on Oct 21, 2009, 8:08am »

I've been asked to completely revamp the Chamber of Commerce annual directory. The entries are set up much like the yellow pages section of the phone book. Category followed by business name and then business contact information, like so:

Agriculture
Thompson Farms
Address
Phone

Davis Farms
Address
Phone

Accountants
Collins Accounting
Address
Phone

Andrews Accounting
Address
Phone

Johnson, Turner & Associates
Address
Phone

Is there a way to sort the entries alphabetically by category, so that the entire Accounting section ends up before the entire Agriculture section? I can't seem to convince Word to keep the business entries "attached" to the categories when I try to sort. I run into the same problem trying to sort the entries within the categories - the business names become detached from the contact information and it's a huge mess.

Help!

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mizzou
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Re: Complex sorting in MS Word
« Reply #1 on Oct 21, 2009, 9:44am »

Short of transferring everything to Excel to do the sort I have no clue. I'd guess it would depend on how the information is entered in word. I'm not really sure that word will do what you need to do. BUT ...... I don't use word any more than necessary. :-/

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jasonmi
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Re: Complex sorting in MS Word
« Reply #2 on Oct 21, 2009, 9:54am »

I'd transfer everything into Excel or even access. You can also just put an excel DB right into word, now. The new Excel (2007), is slick--probaby as powerful as older Access versions.

In Word, you can probably assign them different levels for indexing or TOCing...that might work.

« Last Edit: Oct 21, 2009, 9:55am by jasonmi »

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boopadaboo
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Re: Complex sorting in MS Word
« Reply #3 on Oct 21, 2009, 9:54am »

Sorry - same answer as Mizz. I use excel for everything, makes sorting much easier. word confuses me. ::)

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kcmoken
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Re: Complex sorting in MS Word
« Reply #4 on Oct 21, 2009, 9:55am »

Table radio button across the top, sort is in the drop-down menu. This assumes that the data is in some sort of table format to start with though.

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housewitch
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Re: Complex sorting in MS Word
« Reply #5 on Oct 21, 2009, 10:21am »

Thanks, y'all!

Unfortunately, they want the entries in a particular format - 3 columns to a (specially sized) page with special styles for each category heading and each business name - that makes transferring the data from an Excel file into Word something of a PITA. I spend more time re-formatting the transferred entries than it would take just to re-type it all in Word. ::)

Same goes for setting up a table in Word. The table works great, but then I'm stuck re-formatting line by line for all 60+ pages of entries.

I appreciate the help in any case. I would never have imagined that it would be impossible to "lock" a subset of information to a heading. I'm going to keep playing with the indexing and toc applications in Word, but I may be better off just doing all the sorting before I enter the data and using cut & paste to move things around later. :-/

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Allison
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Re: Complex sorting in MS Word
« Reply #6 on Oct 21, 2009, 11:17am »

When you started with "I've been asked," my first thought was "she should have said no."

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Re: Complex sorting in MS Word
« Reply #7 on Oct 21, 2009, 11:41am »

HW, google "sorting in Microsoft Word". Lots of info. Seems sort may not work well because of the kind of "carriage return" at the end of the lines.....

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housewitch
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Re: Complex sorting in MS Word
« Reply #8 on Oct 21, 2009, 1:46pm »

Oct 21, 2009, 11:17am, Allison wrote:

When you started with "I've been asked," my first thought was "she should have said no."

Well, I've been asked and am being paid.

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housewitch
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Re: Complex sorting in MS Word
« Reply #9 on Oct 21, 2009, 1:53pm »

Oct 21, 2009, 11:41am, Rosemary wrote:

HW, google "sorting in Microsoft Word". Lots of info. Seems sort may not work well because of the kind of "carriage return" at the end of the lines.....

Yeah, I've been having fun googling about this most of last night and part of this morning. I haven't found anything that's at all helpful. Most everything tells me how to sort a simple list (which this isn't) or how badly MS Word sucks at sorting (which I had figured out all on my own). ::)

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Allison
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Re: Complex sorting in MS Word
« Reply #10 on Oct 21, 2009, 2:42pm »

I hope by the hour.

You could have typed it all again by now.

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housewitch
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Re: Complex sorting in MS Word
« Reply #11 on Oct 21, 2009, 3:13pm »

Nah, just a flat fee. The Chamber Director is a good friend and is paying me out of her own pocket because our Chamber is short of funds but the directory really needs to be re-done. And I actually have typed most of it out. I was just hoping there would be an easy way to sort everything when I'm finished, rather than relying on my feeble brain to get all the alphabetizing 100% correct.

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Boogamite
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Re: Complex sorting in MS Word
« Reply #12 on Oct 21, 2009, 3:24pm »

Oct 21, 2009, 1:46pm, housewitch wrote:

Well, I've been asked and am being paid.

Can you ask them for more money?

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kimmers71
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Re: Complex sorting in MS Word
« Reply #13 on Oct 26, 2009, 12:28am »

If they want 3 columns, how about making a table for each category.
So you would have the first table as:
Agriculture
Thompson Farms Address Phone
Davis Farms Address Phone

2nd table
Accountants
Collins Accounting Address Phone

You would then be able to sort each table by the business name and it would be relatively easy to move tables around as needed.

By having everything listed down like you show is impossible to sort. It would be even impossible to sort in Excel like this.

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