How to sort a list in Microsoft Word

Sorting text numerically or through alphabetising creates a universally understood order.

If you would like your list or paragraphs to be easily navigated and user friendly, re-arranging the list into alphabetical or numerical order will allow your readers to quickly find what they are looking for and search through the list in a flash.

What are your sorting options?

Microsoft Word allows you to sort your list by text, by number or by date, either ascending or descending.

In this post, we will show you how to sort your list numerically or alphabetically.

How to sort lists in Microsoft Word

1. Open your Word Document
2. Select the list or paragraphs you would like to sort
3. Click Sort, found in the Home tab

4. Select your preferred sorting option

5. Press OK

Note – If you are sorting your entire document, with headers be sure to select ‘Header row’ under ‘My list has’ to ensure they are not sorted as well.

You have now successfully sorted your list, paragraph or document in Microsoft Word.

If you make any text edits to your document, Microsoft will not automatically re-sort the lists for you. It’s important to sort your document as the final step, before saving or submitted the file to ensure it is sorted correctly.

Searching for a better way to work together in Microsoft Word Documents?

When working with a number of people in the same Word document you can quickly find yourself siphoning through old versions to compute who made what changes where and when.

Unless you each have a dedicated ‘edit’ day or time slot, you may also end up accidentally working on the same Word document, at the same time. Leaving you with two versions of the same file and the torturous task of merging them together without wasting 2 hours of precious billable hours.

Before you scroll any further we’d like to introduce you to the solution you have been searching for, meet Simul Docs.

Simul Docs was built to make your life easier.

To make working together on a Word Document seamless and pain free.

Simul Docs manages version control for you, version control means they will not only save each new document automatically once an edit is made (no minor feat, with this feature alone you’ll never accidentally save over another author’s document again) but Simul gives each document a version number, relevant to when it was last edited.

This makes it easy to see which document is the most recent file and when it was last edited.

To add a cherry on top of this already sweet tool, Simul also puts the author’s name next to the saved document so you know at a glance when it was saved, how old it is AND who created it. It sounds like a lot but for Simul its a breeze and its what they love doing – making your collaborating life a whole lot easier.

Now without sounding too smug, Simul also has a whole heap of other cool features that might help your team collaborate better.

Think tracked changes, they are automatically turned on, every single new change is tracked and saved. You quite literally will never miss an edit again. Amazing!

Then Simul makes merging as easy as the click of a button.

If two team members are working simultaneously on the document, Simul has your back. Simul will allow the changes to be made, save each version as a new document and let you know there are two new updates for your review. Upon review, you can accept or decline each author’s changes and press ‘merge’. Done. Documents merged!

Simul really does make collaborating easy and it’s a tool that will save you time and frustration.