Table sort rows by column, please

Table sort rows by column, please

I use tables a lot. In my client-side word processor (WordPerfect), I can enter data in a table in random order, then alphanumerically sort the rows by column to order them, e.g., by date, by URL, by some other paramater.

For example, such an ability is a true time- and error-saver when you have to prepare a long list of document titles with descriptions and the dates they were generated, then order them by date or reorder them by some other criteria. This is a very common task in a law office, where subsequent sorts are needed by other parameters, such as whether or not an exhibit has been admitted by the court into evidence.

As another example, a teacher may need a list of students sorted alphabetically by name for many purposes, but wish to resort the data by other critieria, such as scores on a particular test or birthdates.

Without a sorting ability, you must constantly insert new rows to create the order manually and reordering rows is a manual nightmare. With a sorting ability, you can enter data in the next empty row as you are going through the documents you are summarizing then afterward sort their entries by date and/or other data contained within a given column.

In WordPerfect X3, the following sort types are available (also applies to sorts other than in table matter; extracted from the Help file):

In the Sort by area, enable one of the following options:

� Line (ends with one hard return) � sorts by line

� Paragraph (ends with multiple hard returns) � sorts by paragraph

� Merge record � sorts by merge record

� Table row � sorts by table row

� Parallel column row � sorts by table column or parallel column

In the Keys (sorting rules) area, choose one of the following from the Type list box:

� Alpha � sorts in alphanumeric order by letters and then by numbers

� Numeric � sorts by numbers only

� Date � sorts by date

In the Keys (sorting rules) area, choose one of the following from the Sort order list box:

� Ascending � sorts from smallest to largest order or first to last (1 to 9)

� Descending � sorts from largest to smallest order or last to first (9 to 1)

In the Keys (sorting rules) area, tab to the record subdivision boxes and type a value in one of the following boxes that corresponds to the part of the record you want to sort:

� Line

� Field

� Word

In many situations, an RDBMS would be a more appropriate tool, but it's simply a market reality that few people have the necessary skills so tables tend to be used by far more users. I think enabling the sorting of table rows by column would be a highly useful feature for Zoho Writer.