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Alphabetizing a list in Pages
- Thread starter stenoboy
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How to alphabetize in pages!
If you wish to alphabetize a list in pages....
1. Make the list as below say it's names -
Sarah
Jane
Elizabeth
Ben
Patrick
2. Insert a table on the page
3. Highlight the list of names and drag them into a box in the table - they should automatically each end up in their own box.
4. Go to the 'edit tool bar' and click on the table logo at the top, bringing up all the table edit options.
5. Select only one box in the table ie. the one at the top of the list.
Go to "Edit Rows & Columns" there is a drop down menu. This menu will allow you to 'sort ascending' 'sort descending' etc. Select which you would like.
6. Once the contents of the table are in the order you want, move the text out of the table and get rid of the table.
If you wish to alphabetize a list in pages....
1. Make the list as below say it's names -
Sarah
Jane
Elizabeth
Ben
Patrick
2. Insert a table on the page
3. Highlight the list of names and drag them into a box in the table - they should automatically each end up in their own box.
4. Go to the 'edit tool bar' and click on the table logo at the top, bringing up all the table edit options.
5. Select only one box in the table ie. the one at the top of the list.
Go to "Edit Rows & Columns" there is a drop down menu. This menu will allow you to 'sort ascending' 'sort descending' etc. Select which you would like.
6. Once the contents of the table are in the order you want, move the text out of the table and get rid of the table.
Have no luck moving out of the table, back to regular text
I have no luck selecting the contents of a table and moving it back to regular text. I can't believe Apple makes no easy way to just write a grocery list and select all, sort asend or desend. So every time you want to add to a list, you have to move the list into and out of a table? I'm shocked. So once I have the list asended or desended, I have tried selecting the table, coping it and , but all I get is another table, not the raw contents of the boxes.
I have no luck selecting the contents of a table and moving it back to regular text. I can't believe Apple makes no easy way to just write a grocery list and select all, sort asend or desend. So every time you want to add to a list, you have to move the list into and out of a table? I'm shocked. So once I have the list asended or desended, I have tried selecting the table, coping it and , but all I get is another table, not the raw contents of the boxes.
You also could do this, if you've run AppleScript utility and have the AS menu in the menu bar.
Open your script editor and paste this file:
The script should be saved in this folder: /Users/<user name>/Library/Scripts/Applications/Pages/
Now it will appear in the AppleScript menu, under "Pages Scripts"
mt
Open your script editor and paste this file:
Code:
tell application "Pages"
-- not a perfect solution, but a near-perfect one
-- code stolen liberally from: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040513173003941
set blob to the selection of document 1
set blobY to paragraphs of text of blob
set TID to AppleScript's text item delimiters
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {ASCII character 10}
set blobList to (blobY as string)
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to TID
set blobReplace to do shell script "echo " & quoted form of blobList & " | sort -f"
set the selection of document 1 to blobReplace
end tellThe script should be saved in this folder: /Users/<user name>/Library/Scripts/Applications/Pages/
Now it will appear in the AppleScript menu, under "Pages Scripts"
mt
Even better way ...
Open System Preferences
Open Keyboard
Select Keyboard Shortcuts tab
Select Services in left-hand pane
Scroll down to Text entry.
You'll see Sort Lines Ascending and Sort Lines Descending
mt
Open System Preferences
Open Keyboard
Select Keyboard Shortcuts tab
Select Services in left-hand pane
Scroll down to Text entry.
You'll see Sort Lines Ascending and Sort Lines Descending
mt
Must be a Snow Leopard thing, I don't see it either. I'm at 10.5.8 ...
If I need an alphabetized list in Pages I do the Table Thing, but if I think I'll be needing to edit it, I keep the table but make all the lines invisible. Then you can add some rows and names, and re-sort whenever needed.
Pages can only sort in a table. Install WordService from Devon Technologies to add sorting in the main text layer of a word processing document.
Thanks PeggyD. Just tried it and it seems to work well. A couple of other interesting things have also been installed into the Services menu... looking forward to trying those too.
Thanks again.
This script worked very well to sort the text, but the problem, as with WordServices, is that it doesn't keep any of the formatting, which is frustrating for a long bibliography in which certain things need to be italicised. I confess I know nothing about writing scripts, but is it possible in anyway to make it sort and keep those style features?
I think I have it...
Needing to find a way to alphabetize a list I had made in Pages, I first, of coarse, looked here in MacForums. Not finding what I wanted I proceeded to alphabetize the list the old fashion way. After I finished I decided I needed another column and clicked on the top of one of the columns. I'm not sure what this is called ... it was labeled according to each row: A,B, and C. (I only had the three columns to start with) Upon right clicking 'C' I saw that sure enough it gave me options of "sort ascending, sort descending". I could have clicked any of the rows and it would have given me the option of "sort ascending, sort descending". I hope I understood the question correctly.
Hope this helps someone else.
Now I hope I can remember this when I need it once again *wink.
Needing to find a way to alphabetize a list I had made in Pages, I first, of coarse, looked here in MacForums. Not finding what I wanted I proceeded to alphabetize the list the old fashion way. After I finished I decided I needed another column and clicked on the top of one of the columns. I'm not sure what this is called ... it was labeled according to each row: A,B, and C. (I only had the three columns to start with) Upon right clicking 'C' I saw that sure enough it gave me options of "sort ascending, sort descending". I could have clicked any of the rows and it would have given me the option of "sort ascending, sort descending". I hope I understood the question correctly.
Hope this helps someone else.
Now I hope I can remember this when I need it once again *wink.
Last edited:
Installing WordService from Devon Technologies solved problem for me
Installing WordService from Devon Technologies solved this problem for me, had been bugging me for a while as I have just stopped using Word.
If you install after reading the 'read me' file first which tells you how to install and then follow these steps below it is easy to add a sort ascending, sort descending service to pages:
1. Open System Preferences
2. Open Keyboard
3. Select Keyboard Shortcuts tab
4. Select Services in left-hand pane
5. Scroll down to Text entry
6. You'll see Sort Lines Ascending and Sort Lines Descending - Tick boxes
7. DONE
Installing WordService from Devon Technologies solved this problem for me, had been bugging me for a while as I have just stopped using Word.
If you install after reading the 'read me' file first which tells you how to install and then follow these steps below it is easy to add a sort ascending, sort descending service to pages:
1. Open System Preferences
2. Open Keyboard
3. Select Keyboard Shortcuts tab
4. Select Services in left-hand pane
5. Scroll down to Text entry
6. You'll see Sort Lines Ascending and Sort Lines Descending - Tick boxes
7. DONE
The Easy Way (I guess...)
>highlight text/list
>Format>Table>Convert Text to Table
>Inspector>Table Tab>Edit Rows and Columns>Sort Ascending/Descending
>Format>Table> Convert Table to Text
Hope it helps!
>highlight text/list
>Format>Table>Convert Text to Table
>Inspector>Table Tab>Edit Rows and Columns>Sort Ascending/Descending
>Format>Table> Convert Table to Text
Hope it helps!
helpful site
A favorite site of mine for various list sorting and list refinements is
http://sortmylist.com/
I just used it to sort my Pages list using cut and paste.
A favorite site of mine for various list sorting and list refinements is
http://sortmylist.com/
I just used it to sort my Pages list using cut and paste.
>highlight text/list
>Format>Table>Convert Text to Table
>Inspector>Table Tab>Edit Rows and Columns>Sort Ascending/Descending
>Format>Table> Convert Table to Text
Hope it helps!
Thanks so much, so simple once you explained it
I can't believe it either. Such a simple function that old and crappy word document could do 20 years ago with a blink of eye. It is hard to believe that the "brilliant" people who are designing these programs and computers have not figure out that they make this function nearly impossible to figure it out. It is unacceptable that we have to create a table in order to make an alphabetical order.
Holy cow, I could spend more time trying to figure out how to use this MacRumors than it took me to find the answer when I googled and found this forum. This answer helped save me many more hours of frustration. Thanks a bunch for your smartness!