Sort
Sorts the selected paragraphs or table rows alphabetically or numerically. You can define up to three sort keys as well as combine alphanumeric and numeric sort keys.
To access this command...
Choose Tools - Sort
Sort criteria
Keys 1 to 3
Specifies additional sorting criteria. You can also combine sort keys.
Column 1 to 3
Enter the number of the table column that you want to use as a basis for sorting.
Key type 1 to 3
Select the sorting option that you want to use.
Order
Ascending
Sorts in ascending order, (for example, 1, 2, 3 or a, b, c).
Descending
Sorts in descending order (for example, 9, 8, 7 or z, y, x).
Direction
Columns
Sorts the columns in the table according to the current sort options.
Rows
Sorts the rows in the table or the paragraphs in the selection according to the current sort options.
Separator
Paragraphs are separated by non-printing paragraph marks. You can also specify that tabs or a character act as separators when you sort paragraphs.
Tabs
If the selected paragraphs correspond to a list separated by tabs, select this option.
Character
Enter the character that you want to use as a separator in the selected area. By using the separator, Office can determine the position of the sorting key in the selected paragraph.
Select
Opens the Special Characters dialogue box, where you can select the character that you want to use as a separator.
Language
Select the language that defines the sorting rules. Some languages sort special characters differently than other languages.
Match case
Distinguishes between upper-case and lower-case letters when you sort a table. For Asian languages special handling applies.
For Asian languages, select Match case to apply multi-level collation. In the multi-level collation, the primitive forms of the entries are first compared with the cases of the forms and diacritics ignored. If the forms are the same, the diacritics of the forms are compared. If the forms are still the same, the cases, character widths, and Japanese Kana differences of the forms are compared.