Sorting tables

[moschops77]

I have a large table in Microsoft Word and the first column are all titles - I have already sorted alphabetically but have alot of titles beginning with the word "The" - is there any way of telling the programme to ignore the word "the" when sorting the titles? Thanks

[dr b]

The way you've described it, I don't see how. Do you need to keep the "The "? If not you can do a "replace" on the first column, replacing "The " with a blank (tho this could get rid of any other "The"s in your titles). Then you can sort on the first column.

How many "The"s have you got? If not too many you could also retype "The ABC" as "ABC, The." If you are handy with word macros this could be automated pretty easily.

Under 'tools..macro" hit "record new macro'". Then your macro would be:

Delete
Delete
Delete
Delete (gets rid of "The ")
End
,
(spacebar)
T
h
e (goes to end of line and types ", The")

Then hit "end macro"
give this macro a keyboard shortcut like "CTRL-Z" or some such, and you can zip through your titles beginning with "The ". Then you can sort on your first coulmn.

[moschops77]

That's great, thanks for that. I need to keep the "The" and have quite a few so will try the macro solution. Many thanks!

[ACtheTROLL]

the easiest way is to stop including the word the.

this is a little "lumpy" - but it works and will only affect the THEs
if the list is in col A
in col B enter
=IF(LEFT(A1,4)="the ",MID(A1,5,200),A1)
then copy and paste (or drag) the formula all the way down to the bottom of the list.
(if any titles are more than 200 characters increase the number accordingly)

then select cols A & B - sort on B not A

to remove the THEs permanently
as above the list is in col a
in B enter - the formula above
then copy and paste (or drag) the formula all the way down to the bottom of the list
select column B
copy, paste special | VALUES into col C
check that it's OK - then delete cols A & B