HOW TO SORT TEXT ALPHABETICALLY - pages

Get the free WordService collection of Services from the OS X App Store. Many of us use it. As part of its download, it installs services that provide shortcuts within Pages, and other applications. Select text to alphabetize in Pages, click the Pages menu > Services > WordService:Sort Ascending. In a second, your selected text is sorted in-place. Another service is capitalize intial word of sentences. Also very handy.

Once these services are installed, they are still not active for use in Pages, etc. Click the gear icon in your Dock to access System Preferences. Select the Keyboard preference panel, and the following in order: Shortcuts > Services. Scroll down in the right Services window until you see the WordService:Sort Lines Ascending. Check it to enable. Quit System Preferences. This sorting service is now available to you in Pages, TextEdit, Mail, etc.

If you click the Launchpad (rocket icon) in the left side of your Dock, you will find the WordService application icon. Click that, and then click its Help button. This will launch a PDF in Preview that lists all of the services and a brief description of each.

I'm a skilled PC person but only 3 months on the Mac. I do find instances of Mac being more confusing and less fully-featured in the "Office" realm. The Operating system and ease of use is overall superb, but there are some gaps. So I skimmed through a bunch of the replies, needing also to alphabetize a list in pages, and it all looked complicated and confusing. Then I did what I often do - went to the web. In 2 seconds I had this website that alphabetizes a list of text for you - http://alphabetizer.flap.tv/ Copy text from pages. Paste into window. Push button. Badda-bing. copy text in window. paste into pages. 15 seconds. Let's hope I didn't catch anything. I guess .tv is probably not the Republic of Tuva.

Correct, Pages (and other apps) does (do) not have an internal machine to do that. Nevertheless, the solution is simple:

1. Download WordService

2. Install it

3. activate its rich functions.

From now on, you may use WS under Services.

WordService is free & always has been. You can get it from the Mac App Store or directly from Devon Technologies under the Freeware section.

It's called a... Service!

Each app has its main app menu title, just to the right of the little Apple Logo in the upper left corner of the screen. Under this menu there is always a choice called "Services". Services are add-ons, mostly third party. I avoid third party software for the most part, but this one is free, behaves well and does amazing things. It's a little difficult to get it in the right folder after downloading and a little confusing to get set up. Then you forget about it and have a bunch of extra text functions in most of your apps.

Here's the drill:

Download from:

http://www.devontechnologies.com/products/freeware.html

Move "WordService.service" to Macintosh HD > Library > Services

Go to System Preferences > Hardware > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services and check the box for ones that you want, like here:

Jerry

The following code works fine as an Automator Service to sort ascending, replacing the highlighted list of items in your document. This includes Pages ’09 v4.3, TextEdit, and others, but not Pages v5. The latter requires you select your list of items, and from the Pages > Services menu, you choose “New TextEdit Window Containing Selection.” Select the list again in TextEdit and use this Service to sort, then paste back into Pages v5.

Double-click on the following images to expand.

The code:

and the Automator Service:

I solved MY issues: I had two versions of WordService.service, one outdated, after removing it, all is flawless.

so, the best and simplest solution for sort (ascending/descending) in Pages or any word processor which complies with Cocoa routines is WordService. It also allows a lot of other services.

My apologies again for intruding into your discussion.

Denel,

That's how this is supposed to work. 🙂

You can search while those who wrote the answers earlier sleep, or watch a hockey game.

Glad you found your answer. There's an easier way to sort, but it takes some time to set it up. If you dowload, install and activate Devon Wordservice, you will have sorting and many other handy utilities at your disposal.

Jerry

Hello All,

I must say a big thank you to all who have commented following the initial question by macflower70. I am completely new to the Mac world and am having fun but what follows may be nothing but nonsence to all you seasoned pros. Eve this addition may not turn out as expected as it's also a first.

I initially jumped into the discussion partway through and subsequently installed the WordService.service software, putting it into the Library > Service folder (thankfully having previously found out how to get to the Library folder) - thanks Jerry for nice clear instructions. I then spent some time trying to work out how to use the downloaded additions - sort lines ascending and sort lines descending - to sort a few lines of text in Pages, all to no avail.

Just in passing it seems that you pros refer to the version of Pages either by the year when it was current (Pages '09 or Pages '13) or by its version (v. 4.3 or v. 5) - you do love confusing the novice! I'll leave VikingOSX and his screen shots for another day! Some of the discussion went completely over my head which also adds confusion and other questions arise - for example, where do I put the folder with the Read Me file, etc., which downloads with the WordService.service application?

I digress: I then tried following the Dec 21, 2013 5:31 PM offering from Jerry - an update for Pages '13. I eventually arrived at completeing the sort both with or without WordService.service installed and along the way found that removing the WordService.service software removed the sort lines ascending and sort lines descending options from the Service list in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services.

At some time in the past I came across a discussion that allowed me to add "New TextEdit Window Containing Selection" as a Service - this Service system really is a mind-bending structure for the uninitiated! Having re-installed the WordService.service software and without following Jerry's update method I used the New TextEdit Window Containing Selection service to put the text into a new window, selected that window's text, selected Services > Sort Lines Ascending (which was now available, though not available for the Pages document). The text sorted and I was then able to copy and paste it back into the original document.

Have I completely missed the point by doing it this way? It seemed a lot quicker and easier than trying to put the text into a headerless, single column table or is it likely that I actually did the table method in a convoluted way?

Just as an added point, the WordService.service Read Me suggests that having installed the software one should log off and then logon. I'm afraid it's something I omitted to do and all seems to work as I would expect it so to do.

Please feel free to yell at me that I've completely wasted time because I'm barking up the wrong tree!

Regards to all,

Contentedchap

In Pages 6 (& I assume Pages 5), hover the cursor over the right-hand side of the letter header & click to see the menu.

In Pages 4 it is in the "action" menu of the table inspector.

In both cases you must have the rows in the column you want to sort selected.

The table inspector is in Pages 4, iWork '09. There is no table inspector in Pages 6 (I looked). The first is a screenshot of a simple table in Pages 6.

Your text must be in a table to sort unless you are using Devon Technologies WordService.

The easiest way to do this is by following my tutorial. https://medium.com/mac-tutorials/how-to-sort-a-z-on-pages-7bc5196d1ebe It takes 5 minutes and a noob can do it easily.

Hi! Pages doesn't have the feature. The question has been answered many times before. Do a search in the forum or read the suggested threads on the left of this page.

I assume by this time you've found an answer, but for those who wish simply to sort text alphabetically check out http://textmechanic.com/Sort-Text-Lines.html.

MF.

1. Select the lines in your list.
2. Format > Table > Convert Text to Table.
3. Select one of the cells in the resulting table.
4. In the Table Inspector, Table tab, Edit Rows and Columns section, Choose Sort Ascending.
5. Format Table > Convert Table to Text.

Jerry