Tables won't sort properly with parentheses, en dashes etc.

[Rhonda from Western Australia]

Word 2003

I have a list of bibliographic References in a very long table. Most sort
fine (Author. Date. Title etc.). However, some won't sort properly. I think
I've discovered the reason and would like to know how to get Word to ignore
certain symbols when sorting.

For example: If I have this:
* Authoring body ABC (prepared for Company Name XYZ). 2008. Title...
* Authoring body ABC (prepared for Company Name XYZ). 2009. Title...
* Authoring body ABC (prepared for Company Name XYZ). 2006. Title...
then when I sort the table, the entries remain as entered -- they do not
sort. If I remove the '(prepared for Company Name XYZ)' bit, they sort
correctly by date where the authoring body ABC is the same.

Further to this, if all preceding bits are the same (authoring body, date),
but there are titles with en dashes, then these aren't sorted correctly
either. For example:
* Authoring body ABC. 2008. Risk Strategy – Onshore...
* Authoring body ABC. 2008. Risk Strategy – Site...
* Authoring body ABC. 2008. Risk Strategy – Offshore...
In this example, I expected 'Offshore' to come before 'Onshore' and both to
come before 'Site'. I can understand that there may be differences where no
en dash is used, or a hyphen or an em dash, but these are the same en dashes.

Can anyone suggest a way to get Word 2003 to sort these references? Our
master reference list is some 77 pages and it MUST be in alphabetical order
by author, then date, then title. We only use a single column table for these
references.

Thanks!

--Rhonda

 

[Robert M. Franz [RMF]]

Hello Rhonda

Word 2003

I have a list of bibliographic References in a very long table. Most sort
fine (Author. Date. Title etc.). However, some won't sort properly. I think
I've discovered the reason and would like to know how to get Word to ignore
certain symbols when sorting.

For example: If I have this:
* Authoring body ABC (prepared for Company Name XYZ). 2008. Title...
* Authoring body ABC (prepared for Company Name XYZ). 2009. Title...
* Authoring body ABC (prepared for Company Name XYZ). 2006. Title...
then when I sort the table, the entries remain as entered -- they do not
sort. If I remove the '(prepared for Company Name XYZ)' bit, they sort
correctly by date where the authoring body ABC is the same.

Further to this, if all preceding bits are the same (authoring body, date),
but there are titles with en dashes, then these aren't sorted correctly
either. For example:
* Authoring body ABC. 2008. Risk Strategy – Onshore...
* Authoring body ABC. 2008. Risk Strategy – Site...
* Authoring body ABC. 2008. Risk Strategy – Offshore...
In this example, I expected 'Offshore' to come before 'Onshore' and both to
come before 'Site'. I can understand that there may be differences where no
en dash is used, or a hyphen or an em dash, but these are the same en dashes.

FWIW, if I put the 6 entries above into a single-row table in Word 2007,
they sort correctly here. I very much doubt the sorting algorithm has
been adapted since your version, so I suspect there's something
different amiss.

If you can reproduce this problem in a new document with a smallish
table and these entries, you can send me this sample document and I'll
take a look.

HTH
Robert