Microsoft Word experts - Need some help sorting my text please

Factual Questions
1

I want to create and maintain (and sort) an ever-growing document in Word, but it’s not behaving as I think it should.

I will try to explain.

Let’s say I am a bookie with several clients. I see the clients every week or two and I want to keep track of them, grouped by name and sorted by date seen, but also including some text.

An example, using the method I thought would work:

Brown, Henry 2017/10/03 – Paid him $50
Brown, Henry 2017/10/22 – Paid him $20
Brown, Henry 2017/06/12 – Did not show up
Smith, Jerome 2017/07/16 – Paid me $20
Smith, Jerome 2017/09/06 – Paid me $40
Adams, Harry 2017/07/26 – Paid me $10

Note that the earliest (first) entry for each name is bold.

I would expect, once sorted, to have the bolded (earliest) entry first for each name, followed chronologically within that name, and the names overall alphabetically.

In other words, the above list properly sorted should look like this:

Adams, Harry 2017/07/26 – Paid me $10
Brown, Henry 2017/06/12 – Did not show up
Brown, Henry 2017/10/03 – Paid him $50
Brown, Henry 2017/10/22 – Paid him $20
Smith, Jerome 2017/07/16 – Paid me $20
Smith, Jerome 2017/09/06 – Paid me $40

But it actually ends up being sorted like this:

Adams, Harry 2017/07/26 – Paid me $10
Brown, Henry 2017/10/03 – Paid him $50
Brown, Henry 2017/10/22 – Paid him $20
Brown, Henry 2017/06/12 – Did not show up
Smith, Jerome 2017/09/06 – Paid me $40
Smith, Jerome 2017/07/16 – Paid me $20

Now I know the answer is probably to use Excel or some other spreadsheet to accomplish this, but for various reasons I would much prefer using Word. If only it would sort like I want it to.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

mmm

ETA: Note that I use a tab stop between the name and date

2

Microsoft Word has the ability to build tables which behave much like spreadsheets. Including columnar behavior with sorting. You can even convert tab-delimited text directly into a table.

Alas, if you’re not allergic specifically to Excel, but to the whole idea of spreadsheets, I got nothin’. Because a spreadsheet is the correct tool for the job, regardless of what program you implement it in.

3

I agree that this would be easier to build in an Excel spreadsheet. And I’d remove the slashes from the dates, so they read 20171003. It’s a little harder for a person to read, but easier to sort.

4

You can embed an Excel sheet into Word. Best of both worlds?

Word is absolutely the wrong tool for the job.

5

As long as we’re not fighting the hypothetical, I couldn’t reproduce the problem in Word 2013. I typed the data in, clicked the Sort icon, then chose to sort by [Paragraphs] with type [Text] in (Ascending) order with (No header row). I got the data I (and you) expected.

But yeah, +4 for using a spreadsheet or equivalent.

6

Thanks, everyone.

My reason for resisting doing this in Excel is its appearance. I want it to look like a simple list, not like a spreadsheet. Problem is, I will be adding to it almost daily and I want it easily and reliably sortable.

I think I would actually sort it manually as I go than Excel it.

I will look at the suggestions offered.
mmm

7

Even removing the slashes and text, Word sorts like this:

Adams, Harry 20170726
Brown, Henry 20171003
Brown, Henry 20171022
Brown, Henry 20170612
Smith, Jerome 20170906
Smith, Jerome 20170716

Anyone have a clue what it is thinking?

(Word 2007, sort by paragraphs, text, ascending, no header row)
mmm

8

So you’re telling us that Brown sorts with the first two rows showing the dates in ascending order but the third row is the smallest = earliest date?

And that Smith also sorts with the smallest = earliest date last?

What happens if you put more than three rows for a single name?

One other idea: turn on the paragraph marks so you can see your formatting. Ensure every row has the funky “P” symbol at the end. if you typed in a line break instead of a paragraph end that makes a huge difference: It essentially turns the rows joined by line breaks into a single unchanging blob of rows that will be slipped in between all the other rows according to the blob’s top entry ignoring all the other rows in the blob.

Likewise the spacing between words MUST be the same for this cockamamie plan of your to work. If you have an extra space between the name and the date for one of Smith’s or Brown’s entry it will sort wrongly because its’ comparing the " " in one row with the “2” in the other rows.

You will encounter this mess the first time you have somebody named Smith, John and also Smithson, Fred. Or if not then when you have Smith, Fred and Smith, Frederick. In effect you’ll be sorting the “erick” part of the second guy’s name versus the date part of the first guy’s name.

You really, really, *really *want to do this as a Word table with a separate column for name, date, and remarks. You *will *create a disaster otherwise; it’s just a matter of time.

9

The real problem is that your intended sort order means nothing to a computer.

Without writing custom Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code, there is no automatic sort algorithm that understands that “bold” has a higher collation order than anything else.

You don’t want a Word document. You want a database with stored logic.

Good luck. Your problem’s solvable, but not with Word.

10

This is almost certainly the problem.

Relative to "I want it to look like a list, not a spreadsheet - you can turn off the gridlines in Excel, which will get a more “Word” looking list.

11

The simplest answer for the OP’s goal is to create a spreadsheet.

Put the names in column A, the date in column B as a date, not as text that looks like a date, and the remarks in column C. With a header row above.

Then, and here’s the magic of using your computer for computing instead of just for typing neatly, do this.

In column D’s header row, put a header “Customer Listing”. Then in Column D row 2 (typically the first row of data) put the formula =TRIM(A2) & " " & TEXT(B2,“YYYY-MM-DD”) & " " & TRIM(C2). That example is for row 2, but you can copy it down to all your other rows of data.

You can fiddle with the formatting code in the TEXT function if you prefer your dates to look differently.

Always sort all the columns (A-D) together as a whole table. And when you want to print a nice roster, set your print area to column D only and print that.

Voila!! (and Cello too!) You get easy data entry, accurate sorting, *and *correct pretty printing. Even if you’re kinda sloppy about extra spaces and such in your inputs.

In fact you’d do even better to have a column each for first and last names stored separately and combine them for printing. That avoids queerness with Smith, Zeb vs. Smithson, Alex.

It’d be a bit more involved to get Column D to display the first entry for each name in bold. But it’s *not *hard. Just more trouble than I have time and willingness to explain just now while the OP seems real resistant to even starting down the Excel road.

12

Sorting by column, alphabetically by name followed by chronologically by actual date, would get the correct order.

It wouldn’t provide the “gotta look like lines of text” appearance, and if marking up the first chronological order for each name is required, a table or spreadsheet wouldn’t do that automatically. Maybe conditional formatting.

13

In 1/10th the time it took you to make this thread, you could’ve made the list in Excel, sorted it how you wanted it, and copied and pasted it into Word as a list to make it look however you want. And you can use conditional formatting for the name bolding.

14

I got it solved. There were some funky tab settings that I had to get rid of, did not know they were in there. Sorts like a dream now.

Thanks, all.
mmm

15

In View menu, unselect Gridlines. It’ll look just like a simple list in Word, but it won’t be so dumb.

16

**Folacin **had the same suggestion upthread.

I think I will try this. Even though it is working nicely so far, Word has a way of making its own little rules at random times with zero input or warning.
mmm

17

OK, I’m back to bug everyone.

My knowledge of Excel is very limited.

If I input the data as described in my OP, I will have the first column for the name, the second for the date, and the third for additional text related to that visit.

I want to sort first by name (so all the Henry Browns are grouped together), but also by date within each name (so the three Henry Browns are listed chronologically, earliest to latest).

How, exactly, do I accomplish this sort?

Thanks,
mmm

18

If you can find where options for sorting are there should be three choices. Sort ascending, sort descending or custom. Under custom there are lots of options, but you want the most basic “Sort first by this column and then by this column.” The exact buttons to press will depend on your OS and software version.

19

Your knowledge of Excel is growing.

Working in Excel is so much more logical and linear than Word that what you learn today will be much more useful to you in the future than anything you would have learned kludging together a solution in Word.

You made the right decision.