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How to sort multiple columns in a table ascending text? in Word Tables

8/22/2005 6:48 PM PST

Question

	I have a simple table with three columns containing straight text - a single word in each cell. I would like to sort the contents of across all the columns alphbetically. Under Table>Sort> Columns are listed individually cannot select all three. Under Table>Sort>Options Sort Column Only is ticked & greyed out - have not been able to unselect this option. Any help appreciated.

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Jezebel

8/22/2005 7:23 PM PST

You can sort the table by one or optionally two columns. If I understand you
rightly you want to sort the rows (is that what you mean by 'across all the
columns'?) -- in which case, you can't do it in Word. Copy the table to
Excel, manipulate it there as you need, then copy it back.

"Holden" <Holden@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D5716480-BF07-42BC-AF41-6A3ABC0D6A03@microsoft.com...
>I have a simple table with three columns containing straight text - a
>single
> word in each cell. I would like to sort the contents of across all the
> columns alphbetically.
>
> Under Table>Sort> Columns are listed individually cannot select all
> three.
> Under Table>Sort>Options Sort Column Only is ticked & greyed out - have
> not been able to unselect this option.
>
> Any help appreciated.
>
>

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Holden

8/22/2005 8:10 PM PST

Hi Jezebel, I have a table which has 3 columns and contains plain text in
each cell. Currently each column is sorted A to Z. I would the sort to go
alphabetically across the 3 columns, ie: Column 1 starts with letter A and
Column 3 ends with letter Z with everything in between sorted alphabetically.
So sort would start down column 1, continue at top of column 2 and down,
then continue at top of column 3 and down. Hope this explains it a bit
better.

Have copied tabled into excel and am coming up against same problem.

Regards.

"Jezebel" wrote:

> You can sort the table by one or optionally two columns. If I understand you
> rightly you want to sort the rows (is that what you mean by 'across all the
> columns'?) -- in which case, you can't do it in Word. Copy the table to
> Excel, manipulate it there as you need, then copy it back.
>
>
>
>
> "Holden" <Holden@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:D5716480-BF07-42BC-AF41-6A3ABC0D6A03@microsoft.com...
> >I have a simple table with three columns containing straight text - a
> >single
> > word in each cell. I would like to sort the contents of across all the
> > columns alphbetically.
> >
> > Under Table>Sort> Columns are listed individually cannot select all
> > three.
> > Under Table>Sort>Options Sort Column Only is ticked & greyed out - have
> > not been able to unselect this option.
> >
> > Any help appreciated.
> >
> >
>
>
>

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Jezebel

8/22/2005 9:05 PM PST

You're right. Excel won't do that either. However, moving cells around is
very easy. Put it all into one column, sort, split it back into three.

"Holden" <Holden@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B7121556-210F-404E-89C4-ABE5737E347B@microsoft.com...
> Hi Jezebel, I have a table which has 3 columns and contains plain text in
> each cell. Currently each column is sorted A to Z. I would the sort to
> go
> alphabetically across the 3 columns, ie: Column 1 starts with letter A
> and
> Column 3 ends with letter Z with everything in between sorted
> alphabetically.
> So sort would start down column 1, continue at top of column 2 and down,
> then continue at top of column 3 and down. Hope this explains it a bit
> better.
>
> Have copied tabled into excel and am coming up against same problem.
>
> Regards.
>
> "Jezebel" wrote:
>
>> You can sort the table by one or optionally two columns. If I understand
>> you
>> rightly you want to sort the rows (is that what you mean by 'across all
>> the
>> columns'?) -- in which case, you can't do it in Word. Copy the table to
>> Excel, manipulate it there as you need, then copy it back.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> "Holden" <Holden@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:D5716480-BF07-42BC-AF41-6A3ABC0D6A03@microsoft.com...
>> >I have a simple table with three columns containing straight text - a
>> >single
>> > word in each cell. I would like to sort the contents of across all the
>> > columns alphbetically.
>> >
>> > Under Table>Sort> Columns are listed individually cannot select all
>> > three.
>> > Under Table>Sort>Options Sort Column Only is ticked & greyed out -
>> > have
>> > not been able to unselect this option.
>> >
>> > Any help appreciated.
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>

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Suzanne S. Barnhill

8/22/2005 8:24 PM PST

Answer

You can't sort all three columns as a single list. For that you would need
newspaper-style columns. You could use Table | Convert | Table to Text,
separating with a paragraph mark, which would put the contents of each cell
in a separate paragraph. You can then use Table | Sort to sort the
paragraphs.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Holden" <Holden@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D5716480-BF07-42BC-AF41-6A3ABC0D6A03@microsoft.com...
> I have a simple table with three columns containing straight text - a
single
> word in each cell. I would like to sort the contents of across all the
> columns alphbetically.
>
> Under Table>Sort> Columns are listed individually cannot select all
three.
> Under Table>Sort>Options Sort Column Only is ticked & greyed out - have
> not been able to unselect this option.
>
> Any help appreciated.
>
>

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