How to Sort Text Alphabetically in Microsoft Word

Have you ever wanted to sort text alphabetically in Microsoft Word? Maybe you have a list of names, keywords, or titles that you want to organize neatly. Or maybe you have a table that contains data that you want to sort by a specific column. Whatever your needs, Microsoft Word has a feature that allows you to sort text alphabetically easily and quickly.

In this article, Bardimin will show you three ways to sort text alphabetically in Microsoft Word, namely:

• Use the Sort menu on the Home tab
• Use the Sort menu on the Table tabTools
• Use the Sort menu on the Mailings tab

Bardimin will also provide some secret tips and tricks to sort text alphabetically more flexibly and creatively. Let’s get started!

How to Sort Text Alphabetically Using the Sort Menu on the Home Tab

The first way to sort text alphabetically in Microsoft Word is to use the Sort menu on the Home tab. This menu can be used to sort text that is within a paragraph, list, or table. Here are the steps:

1. Select the text that you want to sort alphabetically. You can select one or more paragraphs, lists, or tables. Make sure you don’t select text that you don’t want to sort, such as headings, subheadings, or footnotes.
2. Click the Home tab on the Ribbon. Ribbon is the menu bar and icon located at the top of the Microsoft Word window.
3. In the Paragraph group, click the Sort icon. Ikonya is in the form of two arrows pointing up and down, with the letters A and Z beside them. You can also press Alt + H SO on your keyboard to open this menu.
4. In the Sort Text dialog box, select the Sort by option. You can choose Paragraphs to sort text by paragraph, Field 1 to sort text by the first column in a table, or Headings to sort text by heading.
5. In the Type box, select the Text option. This option sorts the text alphabetically. You can also choose other options, such as Number to sort text by number, or Date to sort text by date.
6. In the Order box, select Ascending or Descending options. The Ascending option will sort text from A to Z, while the Descending option will sort text from Z to A.
7. If you want to sort text by more than one criteria, you can add the option Then by. For example, if you want to sort text by the first column, then the second column, and then the third column in a table, you can select Field 1, Field 2, and Field 3 respectively, and specify the type and sort order for each.
8. If you want to ignore certain characters when sorting text, such as spaces, punctuation, or symbols, you can check the Ignore punctuation characters or Ignore symbols option. This option is useful if you want to sort text that contains phone numbers, email addresses, or zip codes, for example.
9. If you want to sort text that contains upper and lower case letters, you can check the Case-sensitive option. This option will distinguish between upper and lower case letters when sorting text. For example, if you select the Ascending option, text that contains uppercase letters appears before text that contains lowercase letters.
10. When you’ve finished specifying your sorting options, click OK. The text you select will be sorted alphabetically according to the criteria you specify.

Here’s an example of text sorted alphabetically using the Sort menu on the Home tab:

Before:

• Zebra
• Cat
• dog
• Snake
• Elephant
• bird

After (Ascending, Ignore punctuation characters, Ignore symbols, Case sensitive):

• bird
• Cat
• dog
• Elephant
• Snake
• Zebra

How to Sort Text Alphabetically Using the Sort Menu on the Table Tools Tab

The second way to sort text alphabetically in Microsoft Word is to use the Sort menu on the Table Tools tab. This menu can be used to sort the text that is in a table. Here are the steps:

1. Select the table that you want to sort alphabetically. You can select the entire table or part of the table. Make sure you don’t select text that isn’t in the table, such as headings, subheadings, or footnotes.
2. Click the Table Tools tab in the Ribbon. This tab will appear automatically when you select a table. Otherwise, you can press Alt + J on your keyboard to activate this tab.
3. In the Data group, click the Sort icon. The icon is the same as the Sort icon on the Home tab. You can also press Alt J SO on your keyboard to open this menu.
4. In the Sort dialog box, select the Sort by option. You can select Field 1 to sort text by the first column in the table, Field 2 to sort text by the second column in the table, and so on. You can also select the column names you give the table, if any.
5. In the Type box, select the Text option. This option sorts the text alphabetically. You can also choose other options, such as Number to sort text by number, or Date to sort text by date.
6. In the Order box, select Ascending or Descending options. The Ascending option will sort text from A to Z, while the Descending option will sort text from Z to A.
7. If you want to sort text by more than one criteria, you can add the option Then by. For example, if you want to sort text by the first column, then the second column, and then the third column in a table, you can select Field 1, Field 2, and Field 3 respectively, and specify the type and sort order for each.
8. If you want to ignore certain characters when sorting text, such as spaces, punctuation, or symbols, you can check the Ignore punctuation characters or Ignore symbols option. This option is useful if you want to sort text that contains phone numbers, email addresses, or zip codes, for example.
9. If you want to sort text that contains upper and lower case letters, you can check the Case-sensitive option. This option will distinguish between upper and lower case letters when sorting text. For example, if you select the Ascending option, text that contains uppercase letters appears before text that contains lowercase letters.
10. If your table has a title row, you can check the Header row option. This option ignores the title line when sorting text, so the title line stays in the top position. If your table doesn’t have a title row, you can check the option No header row. This option considers the first row in the table as part of the data you want to sort.
11. When you’ve finished specifying your sorting options, click OK. The table you select will be sorted alphabetically according to the criteria you specify.

Here’s an example of a table sorted alphabetically using the Sort menu on the Table Tools tab:

How to Sort Text Alphabetically Using the Sort Menu on the Mailings Tab

The third way to sort text alphabetically in Microsoft Word is to use the Sort menu on the Mailings tab. This menu can be used to sort text that is inside documents, letters, labels, or envelopes. Here are the steps:

1. Select the text that you want to sort alphabetically. You can select one or more paragraphs, lists, or tables. Make sure you don’t select text that you don’t want to sort, such as headings, subheadings, or footnotes.
2. Click the Mailings tab on the Ribbon. You can also press Alt + M on your keyboard to activate this tab.
3. In the Write & Insert Fields group, click the Sort icon. The icon is the same as the Sort icon on the Home tab. You can also press Alt M + SO on your keyboard to open this menu.
4. In the Sort dialog box, select the Sort by option. You can choose Paragraphs to sort text by paragraph, Field 1 to sort text by the first column in a table, or Headings to sort text by heading.
5. In the Type box, select the Text option. This option sorts the text alphabetically. You can also choose other options, such as Number to sort text by number, or Date to sort text by date.
6. In the Order box, select Ascending or Descending options. The Ascending option will sort text from A to Z, while the Descending option will sort text from Z to A.
7. If you want to sort text by more than one criteria, you can add the option Then by. For example, if you want to sort text by the first column, then the second column, and then the third column in a table, you can select Field 1, Field 2, and Field 3 respectively, and specify the type and sort order for each.
8. If you want to ignore certain characters when sorting text, such as spaces, punctuation, or symbols, you can check the Ignore punctuation characters or Ignore symbols option. This option is useful if you want to sort text that contains phone numbers, email addresses, or zip codes, for example.
9. If you want to sort text that contains upper and lower case letters, you can check the Case-sensitive option. This option will distinguish between upper and lower case letters when sorting text. For example, if you select the Ascending option, text that contains uppercase letters appears before text that contains lowercase letters.
10. If your table has a title row, you can check the Header row option. This option ignores the title line when sorting text, so the title line stays in the top position. If your table doesn’t have a title row, you can check the option No header row. This option considers the first row in the table as part of the data you want to sort.
11. When you’ve finished specifying your sorting options, click OK. The text you select will be sorted alphabetically according to the criteria you specify.

Here’s an example of text sorted alphabetically using the Sort menu on the Mailings tab:

Before:

• Dear Mr. Smith,
• Dear Ms. Jones,
• Dear Dr. Lee,
• Dear Mrs. Brown,
• Dear Mr. Green,

After (Sort by Paragraphs, Ascending, Ignore punctuation characters, Ignore symbols):

• Dear Dr. Lee,
• Dear Mr. Green,
• Dear Mr. Smith,
• Dear Ms. Jones,
• Dear Mrs. Brown,

Secret Tips and Tricks to Sort Text Alphabetically in Microsoft Word

In addition to using the Sort menu on the Home, Table Tools, or Mailings tabs, there are several other ways to sort text alphabetically in Microsoft Word that you may not know about. Here are some secret tips and tricks you can try:

• You can use a shortcut keyboard to sort text alphabetically without opening the Sort menu. The trick is to select the text you want to sort, then press Alt + Shift + F10 on your keyboard. This will open the Sort menu directly, and you can specify sorting options as usual. If you want to sort the text alphabetically from A to Z, you can directly press Enter after pressing Alt Shift + F10. If you want to sort the text alphabetically from Z to A, you can press Alt D after pressing Alt + Shift + F10.
• You can use formula to sort text alphabetically within a table. The trick is to add a blank column to the right of the table, and then type the formula =SORT(A:A) in the first cell in the column, where A is the name of the column you want to sort. Then, press Enter and copy the formula into the cells below it. This will generate a text list sorted alphabetically based on the column you selected. You can delete the original column if you want, or hide it by changing its width to zero.
• You can use a macro to sort text alphabetically with a single click. The trick is to record a macro that runs the Sort menu with the options you want, and then assign a button, icon, or keyboard shortcut to run the macro. You can see the full tutorial on how to create and run macros in Microsoft Word here.

Thus the article on how to sort text alphabetically in Microsoft Word. Hope this article is useful and helps you in creating neater and more organized documents. Thank you for reading this article. See you in the next article!