Use Word as "Database"

[wisemax]

The subject may be misleading. My problem is that I collect huge amount
of professional terms in my 'terminology" document. I sort the items
alphabetically. Currently one item equals one paragraph. I have no
problem in sorting the whole document.

My problem is that for a longer definition of a term, I want to break
it down to several paragraphs. But that will mess up the whole thing
when I sort the document.

Do you know a way to keep several lines as a whole and the first word
in the "multiple line area" can still be used for sorting?

Thanks in advance

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you apply a heading style to the word you want to sort on, you can do it
in Outline view; see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/UsingOLView.htm.
Or you could put each term in a new row of a one-column table.

 

[Eric]

Hopefully you're flexible on formatting, but create a two column table with
the first column wide enough for the word to be defined. The definition goes
in the second column. Then sort the whole table by rows using column 1 as the
data source. If you don't want borders, you can always change the borders to
"none" when you format the table.

Eric

 

[CyberTaz]

I don't argue this as a *better* way, but another option if you're already
using Hanging Indent for your list...

When you need a second para in the definition use a 'soft' line break
(Shift-Enter) rather than a hard break (Enter). The list will still sort
properly & may provide some other advantages as well.