trying to find out how to sort text into alphabetical order. In word you had a sort button and you simply highlighted the text and it would sort. Can't find this here - need to sort an index into alphabetical order and its driving me mad!
imac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
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.
So I was right.
You described the behavior of a specific odd configuration as if it was the standard one.
Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) samedi 7 janvier 2012
iMac 21”5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 12 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7.2
I wrote:
I was ready to revert to WordService, but I found that it does not seem to work with Lion, says I should reinstall—the service is detected, but not functional.’
I described the behavior, without indeed digging deeper into that behavior. I assume you feel better when humiliating me, but—if indeed so— I take it for granted.
Thanks for reactivating this thread, j3.
I had downloaded Devon Word Services some time ago, but hadn't finished the installation. Re-reading the thread brought me to Jerry's clear instructions.
Regards,
Barry
Update. If you have a vertical list of items in Pages ’09 v4.3 that you want to sort, the line-endings are carriage-returns, not newlines. I know, they look like paragraph (pilcrow) marks.
If you copy and paste this content into TextEdit, the carriage-returns follow. In Pages v5, these line-endings are newlines. UNIX tools want newlines, and bork when encountering carriage returns without special treatment.
Hello All,
Thanks to Peter and VikingOSX for your responses to my additions and taking the time and effort to reply. The points you both raised are very helpful and certainly add clarity for me. They are also an encouragement. I do apologise, Peter, if you felt I was blaming you for the confusing naming of iWork apps - it's just that seeing the differing notations when reading details written by those in the know when one is not in the know leads to questions which you have answered completely. I could do with a skilled Mac user sitting beside and loosing 45 years off my age would also help! Having grown up from middle age with the PC (and now regretting my lack of Mac involvement from the start of the Apple revolution) it's taking a bit longer for me to catch up on joining the technology mid-stream.
Thanks again for the explanations - they have been extremely useful and I feel welcomed by your comments.
With kind regards,
Contentedchap
This may help you better understand and use Services:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Services_menu
http://www.macworld.com/article/1163996/how_to_use_services_in_mac_os_x.html
http://www.macosxautomation.com/services/
http://brettterpstra.com/howtos/install-an-os-x-system-service/
http://www.gingerbeardman.com/services/
Peter
I posted this same solution to this thread (page 2) on Dec 22, 2013. At that time, it had worked in the original Pages v5 release, and Pages ’09 — but frustratingly, not a newly updated Pages v5.01 or 5.02 at the time of the post. It does now work with Pages v5.2.2.
The Ruby sort that I posted on Dec. 24, 2013 in this thread also works now with v5.2.2.
This was such wonderful help. I have been stymied with so many things in iPages because I worked for years with WordPerfect and just haven't taken the necessary time to learn iPages. Meanwhile, I have read much about iPages upgrades and am glad I haven't upgraded. So my 2 hours of reading has been worthwhile. Anyway, thank you again for this education on sorting in v4.3.
Silverfox
I do not find WordService:Sort Lines Ascending under Shortcuts or Services.
Didn't mean to press helpful: wanted to press unhelpful and thought the number would go up or down depending on how helpful it had been. I'd give this a zero for my MacPro.
I'd rather not pay for something I used to get for free on Word, since I write very basic texts without the need for lots of changes outside what Pages already offers me. I will alphabetize as I go, thank you very much. Too bad.
FWIW, I Have WordService installed on 10.7.2 in my User/Library/Services folder.
Jerrold Green 1 - thank you for your response!! I spent almost 20 minutes trying to figure out how to sort in Pages. I gave up and "googled" how to sort text and I found this forum. Thanks again!!😁
Thanks Jerry!
Is Devon Wordservice an application or is it something that works directly with Pages? I'm totally new to Mac, so please forgive me if my question is silly...
Denel
Brilliant tip Jerry!
Thanks!
Jerry
So you are saying this is simpler AND 64 bit!
;D
Peter
HOW TO SORT TEXT ALPHABETICALLY - pages
