Need help with auto numbering

[Guest]

I have a list of references for a book that was automatically numbered. My
problem is I now need to make an alphabetical version of the list -- but I
need to keep the same numbers with each item they are now associated with.
In other words, the list will be alphabetical, but the numbers will be all
mixed up -- and that's fine. The numbers need to stay with the same reference
they are with now. How do I do that??? Help!

 

[Guest]

Assuming that your references create essentially a big numbered list and you
want to sort the references alphabetically using the first word of the
reference, you can do the following using Word and Excel:

Create a copy of your references. Now highlight the references and select
Table> Convert text to table (it does not matter how many columns or what the
separator is).

With Excel open, copy the Word table, switch to Excel and Edit >Paste
Special and select As: Text. This will copy your Word table into Excel in
two columns.

With both columns selected, select Data > Sort and sort on the second
column. This will create an alphabetically sorted list, while at the same
time keeping the reference number with the reference.

Select your list, copy it, then switch to Word and select Edit > Paste
Special and select Unformatted text. This should give you your
alphabetically sorted list of references with their original number. You may
need to do some formatting of your new list.

 

[Guest]

Thanks so much for the input! I've never used Excel, but will give this a
whirl and see what happens. I'm not very well versed in Word either, as I
much prefer WordPerfect. Unfortunately, I have to work in Word for most of
my clients. So I really appreciate your help. If I can get this to work, it
sounds like it will save me a ton of time. Thanks again!!

 

[Graham Milne]

Assuming that your references create essentially a big numbered list and you
want to sort the references alphabetically using the first word of the
reference, you can do the following using Word and Excel:

Create a copy of your references. Now highlight the references and select
Table> Convert text to table (it does not matter how many columns or what the
separator is).

With Excel open, copy the Word table, switch to Excel and Edit >Paste
Special and select As: Text. This will copy your Word table into Excel in
two columns.

With both columns selected, select Data > Sort and sort on the second
column. This will create an alphabetically sorted list, while at the same
time keeping the reference number with the reference.

Select your list, copy it, then switch to Word and select Edit > Paste
Special and select Unformatted text. This should give you your
alphabetically sorted list of references with their original number. You may
need to do some formatting of your new list.

========================================
I'm havin gthe same problem. Have tried coping my 3 column numbered list to
Excel using paste special but on pasting my left hand column is numbered
1
4
7
10
13
16
etc.
Other numbers are scattered across the spreadsheet. How do I fix this? I
suspect it may be because my original columns were heavily edited. This is
quite urgent so help would be appreciated very much.

 

[Graham Milne]

I entered my numbers manually.
/g