I keep shortcuts to some of Word’s table tools on my Quick Access Toolbar as I find that it’s often handy to be able to convert text into a table, and convert text that is in a table back into plain text. The instructions for creating tables from text, and converting tables back into text are here. One reason to create a table from some text is to sort a list of words into alphabetical order. For example, lists of countries often have to be ordered alphabetically. To convert this list of countries to alphabetical order: ... select the list and use Word's text to table conversion to create a table with one column with a different country on each row. You will need to choose "1" in the Number of columns box, and to separate the text at "Commas" in this example. This will give you a table that looks something like this: Then, use Word's sort function to sort this column into alphabetical order, running from the top to the bottom. You will need to select Sort by 'Column 1' (ascending order is selected automatically) ... ... and your table will end up looking like this ... Use the "Convert table to text" function to convert the table back to text. Unfortunately, I don't think that it's possible to go straight from this type of table to a list of words separated by commas, so search for paragraph marks and replace with a comma and a space ... ... to recreate your list. The sort function will also sort in reverse order, or numerically, if you want it to.
If you're feeling brave, you can record these steps in a macro and assign a keyboard shortcut or create a shortcut on the Quick Access toolbar.
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AuthorAndrea at Yours Truleigh Editing Archives
November 2023
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