Sort order - punctuation

[Beth Brooks]

Hi!

Using Word 2000, I'm trying to sort a 50+ page list of references
alphabetically by the name of the first author, then the second author, and
so on. Author names are separated by commas and a string of author names ends
with a period. The problem occurs when there is only a single author.

Given this list of references:

Writer BA, Author AN, Block W. Title. Publication info. Date. Page(s).
Author AN, Block W. Title. Publication info. Date. Page(s).
Author AN. Title. Publication info. Date. Page(s).
Block W, Writer BA, Author AN. Title. Publication info. Date. Page(s).

I expect the sort to result in this:

Author AN. Title. Publication info. Date. Page(s).
Author AN, Block W. Title. Publication info. Date. Page(s).
Block W, Writer BA, Author AN. Title. Publication info. Date. Page(s).
Writer BA, Author AN, Block W. Title. Publication info. Date. Page(s).

Instead, I get this (note the reverse order of the first two references):

Author AN, Block W. Title. Publication info. Date. Page(s).
Author AN. Title. Publication info. Date. Page(s).
Block W, Writer BA, Author AN. Title. Publication info. Date. Page(s).
Writer BA, Author AN, Block W. Title. Publication info. Date. Page(s).

The only info I've found came from an article about Excel sort order that
said that punctuation is sorted according the the ASCII character value
rather than English text rules.

In any case, can anyone suggest how I might be able to modify the Word sort
order so that I get the results I expect? This list of references is updated
frequently and moving the references around by hand introduces opportunites
for error I'd rather avoid.

Thanks!

Beth

 

[Tony Jollans]

If you click on Options... in the Sort Dialog and check to separate fields
at 'other' and enter a full stop in the box, does it not do as you want?

 

[Henk57]

Hi Beth:
I am not an expert, and use Word 2003 instead of 2000, so if this
doesn't work I apologise for wasting your time. Anyway, I believe that
indeed ASCII character sorting is used and yr problem comes from the
fact that the comma comes before the period. The trick is to do a
global replace of the period by a character that precedes the comma in
the ASCII list, and switch it back later to the period. [Important
Note: make sure you switch to a character that is not used in the
document otherwise switching back will also replace this character to a
period unintentionally.] E.g., use the percentage sign (%). So it goes
like this Edit/Replace "." by "%" [without the quotes in the appropriate
fields) (this works assuming no % is used in the text; you can test this
of course by a FIND command prior to replacement). Now sort, and after
sorting switch back by Edit/Replace "%" by "."
Let me know if this workaround solves your problem!
(PS: Google <ASCII sort order> to find the ASCII table)
GL,
Henk