Numeric sort order problem (7.2 perceived as 7.19)

I frequently have to sort tables on columns that are populated with paragraph
numbers taken from large documents. How do I sort so the order is correct,
e.g., 7.2 comes before 7.19. I know this issue exists in other Office
applications. How can this be corrected without "padding the numbers with 0's
(7.02 instead of 7.2)?

"Don Palmer" wrote:
I frequently have to sort tables on columns that are populated
with paragraph numbers taken from large documents.
How do I sort so the order is correct, e.g., 7.2 comes before 7.19.
I know this issue exists in other Office applications. How can this
be corrected without "padding the numbers with 0's
(7.02 instead of 7.2)?


Hi Don,

In the Sort dialog, go into the options, field delimiter, and enter a full
stop (.).

Say you have the numbers in the first column, you'd set that as the sorting
key in the Sort dialog, and choose the type ("numbers"), just as you've
probably already done before.

But below that, under "With:", you should now see "Field 1" and "Field 2" in
the dropdown list.
If you don't, sort the table once, and look in the "With"-dropdown again...
Sometimes, Word seems to need a first look at what's in the column, to
figure out what fields there are.

Sort by column 1, field 1 (= the number in front of the dot), then by column
1, field 2 (= the number after the dot).

Regards,
Klaus