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Tip of the Month
November 2003

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Sorting by Headings

A useful trick you can use when developing some types of documents is
the ability to sort the various parts of the document based on the
headings you use. For instance, you can sort the document based on
first-level headings (paragraphs that use the Heading 1 style) by
following these steps:

   1. Switch to Outline view by clicking on the Outline view button
      that appears just to the left of the horizontal scroll bar.
   2. Using the controls on the Outlining toolbar, collapse the
      headings so that only the first-level headings are shown. (This
      step is not strictly necessary, but does make the screen a bit
      more readable.)
   3. Place the cursor at the beginning of the first heading and press
      Ctrl+Shift+End to select everything through the end of the
      document.
   4. Choose Sort from the Table menu. Word displays the Sort dialog
      box.
   5. Click on OK to accept the default settings in the dialog box.

Had you skipped the first two steps and performed the sort in any view
besides Outline view, every paragraph would have been sorted
alphabetically and therefore rearranged so that subordinate paragraphs
would be separated from their headings. In other words, you would have
a mess. However, in Outline view, the highest level headings are
sorted, bringing along the subordinate heading levels and body text.

If you wanted to sort by Heading 2 paragraphs, you should also use
Outline view, but you would have to first select all the heading two
paragraphs subordinate to a particular Heading 1 paragraph and then
sort. You will get the same results regardless of how many heading
levels that you show on the Outline toolbar.

(Thanks to Phil Rabichow for contributing this tip.)
 

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