Open dialog sorts by alpanumeric rather than alpha

A

A. Bartlesby

For Word 2000 under XP Pro...

When I go to open a document, the Open list of files is sorted
alphanumerically (i.e. "10 pies.doc" comes after "2 pies.doc") rather than
the alphabetically (where all the 1's come first regardless of what follows
the 1, i.e. 10, 101, 11, 122, 13...). When I view Details and sort by Name,
it sorts alpha, but then doesn't stay that way next time I open.

How can I get it to sort aphabetically by default every time?

Thanks,

AB
 
C

Cindy M -WordMVP-

Hi A.,

I don't believe you can change how the dialog box sorts files. It's a question
of how people expect to view them. The users that like "Details" more often
understand how the computer sorts; those who prefer the icons expect numbers
in numerical order.

The best suggestion I can make would be to upgrade to Word 2002 or 2003, where
Word should "remember" which setting you used across sessions.
For Word 2000 under XP Pro...

When I go to open a document, the Open list of files is sorted
alphanumerically (i.e. "10 pies.doc" comes after "2 pies.doc") rather than
the alphabetically (where all the 1's come first regardless of what follows
the 1, i.e. 10, 101, 11, 122, 13...). When I view Details and sort by Name,
it sorts alpha, but then doesn't stay that way next time I open.

How can I get it to sort aphabetically by default every time?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :)
 
P

Parish

Cindy said:
Hi A.,

I don't believe you can change how the dialog box sorts files. It's a question
of how people expect to view them. The users that like "Details" more often
understand how the computer sorts; those who prefer the icons expect numbers
in numerical order.

The best suggestion I can make would be to upgrade to Word 2002 or 2003, where
Word should "remember" which setting you used across sessions.

I believe that this is the same problem that you see in Explorer. For
some totally unfathomable reason Microsoft decided to change the way
filename sorting is done in XP so that, as the OP pointed out, any
numerical part of a filename is sorted numerically rather than by ASCII
value.

There is a reg hack (provided you have SP1 for XP installed)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=319827

Also, pre-SP1, there was a bug in this new sort order
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q318872

What ever possessed MS to introduce this feature is beyond me (and many
other people). There have been numerous threads on Usenet about it and,
as many people point out, there is no other version of DOS or Windows
(or any other OS for that matter) that uses this collating algorithm.

HTH

Regards,

Parish
 

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