Microsoft Word makes it easy for you to alphabetize text, whether that text is on its own, in a list, or part of a table. Let’s have a look at how it’s done.

How to Alphabetize Paragraphs or Single-Level Lists

Arranging text alphabetically works the very same method whether the text remains in different paragraphs or an actual list (bulleted or numbered). Something to keep in mind, though, is that Word can just manage arranging a single level list. If you arrange a list with multiple levels, it still sorts every line alphabetically and can reorganize your whole list.

Pick the text that you want to sort. Here, we’re simply utilizing text where each word is its own paragraph, but the procedure is the very same if you select items in a bulleted or numbered list.

Switch to the “Home” tab on Word’s Ribbon, and then click the “Sort” button.

This opens the Sort Text window. In the Sort By options, select “Paragraphs” from the first dropdown, and then select “Text” from the “Type” dropdown. Click the “Ascending” option to arrange from A to Z, or “Descending” to arrange from Z to A. When you’ve got it all set up, click the “OKAY” button.

And just like that, your text is alphabetized.

How to Alphabetize By Something Other Than the First Word

Let’s take a look at another example. State that each product on your list has multiple words and you wish to alphabetize by something besides the first word. The most simple example of this would be a list of names where we wished to sort by the surname instead of the first.

Select your text.

Switch to the “Home” tab on Word’s Ribbon, and then click the “Sort” button.

In the Sort Text window, click the “Options” button.

In the Sort Options window, pick the “Other” choice. In package to its right, delete any existing characters, and then push the Spacebar once. Click “OKAY” when you’re done.

Back in the Sort Text window, select “Word 2” from the “Sort By” dropdown, and after that click the “OKAY” button.

Here’s the outcome:

You can even sort by multiple words in one go. Suppose you had actually a list arranged surname initially, like in the following image.

You wish to alphabetize that list by the last name, however then you likewise want to do a 2nd alphabetization by the given name. No issue. After picking your list, hit that “Sort” button on the Ribbon again.

In the Sort Text window, select “Word 2” from the “Sort By” dropdown, and then choose “Word 1” from the very first “Then By” dropdown. (There’s even room for another layer down there if you need it.)

When you’re done, you’ve got a nicely sorted list that appears like this.

How to Alphabetize Text in a Table

In this next example, let’s state you had a table and you wanted to alphabetize the rows according to the text in a particular column. In our case here, we’re utilizing a table with some details about different cities, and we want to alphabetize by the state, which is our 4th column.

Initially, choose the entire table.

Switch over to the “Home” tab on Word’s Ribbon, and after that click the “Sort” button.

In the Sort window, in the “Sort By” dropdown menu, choose the column you by which you ‘d like to sort. In our case, we’re selecting “State” because Word pulled that descriptor from our header row.

We’re going to keep it easy in this example and simply sort by state, but if you wanted to add a 2nd level of sorting (in our case we may wish to sort by city after sorting by state), you might choose it from the “Then By” dropdown menu.

Click “OK” when you’re all set up.

And here’s our table once again, this time sorted alphabetically by the “State” column.

Arranging text alphabetically works the very same way whether the text is in different paragraphs or a real list (bulleted or numbered). Select the text that you want to sort. In the Sort By choices, choose “Paragraphs” from the very first dropdown, and then select “Text” from the “Type” dropdown. Click the “Ascending” choice to arrange from A to Z, or “Descending” to arrange from Z to A. In the Sort Text window, pick “Word 2” from the “Sort By” dropdown, and then select “Word 1” from the very first “Then By” dropdown.