How To: Sort Numbers in Ascending Order in a Generated List

[Southern_Fried_Tech]

Greetings! How do I set up a Generated List of Paragraphs so that it sorts in true ascending order? What I want is:

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

1.5

1.6

1.7

1.8

1.9

1.10

I have tried every trick I can think of with the sort order listed on the reference page. But all I can get is something that sorts by individual number (ignoring the numeric value) like:

1.1

1.10

1.11

1.2

1.20

1.21

1.3

Any help is much appreciated!

[Tolodine]

I am also trying to figure this one out. The only way I have found is to add a 0 to single digit numbers but that is not how our numbering is so after the page is generated we have to go in and delete out all the unwanted 0's. This causes quite a bit of extra, and I think unecessary, work. Any help at all would be appreciated.

[Michael_Müller-Hillebrand]

SFT,

You have the option to create a List of Paragraphs as they appear in the document (like a TOC), or an Alphabetical List of Paragraphs. There is no option for a numerical sort, even though most operating systems now have this feature in their file listings.

Are your numbered paragraphs not appearing in a sequential order in the document?

- Michael

[Southern_Fried_Tech]

Hello there, Michael! Thanks so much for looking at my post! Alas, the LOP will not work. I should have explained more, but it was so complicated I thought folks would give up reading.

Here's the best I can render it without getting permission to share a good example document. I do not blame anyone if it's too cumbersome or convoluted to wade through...

This is a requirements document which has sort of a "legal" tinge to it--as the document evolves we must maintain traceability for individual requirements. This means, for example:

1. Version 1 - I have requirements 1 and 2.
2. Version 2 - I need to add a new requirement, which should appear before requirement 1 in the document. Even though it comes before requirement 1 in the document, numerically it will be requirement 3 and requirement 1 will remain requirement 1.
3. Version 3 - I need to remove requirement 2. Even though I now have only 2 requirements, their numbers will not change (they remain requirements 1 and 3, appearing in reverse order).
4. Version 4 - I need to move requirement 3 to be after requirement 1. Again, the requirements keep their original number, even though their position has changed and there is no longer a "requirement 2" number in use.

Originally, I told the team (I'm doing this for a different dept), that they would have to hand-number requirements, which they did for a while. But that was getting very cumbersome, and the scenarios above are limited to one or two occurrences per document. So I created an auto-number sequence for them to use in the initial version and added a little smoke-and-mirrors work process to take care of changes in later versions. The last bit of chicanery I cannot get to work is the index...

Even if there are no changes to the requirements after the initial version, the index still does not sort in ascending numeric order. It was working with the hand-numbered requirements because they were using leading zeros. But without being able to include leading zeros in the auto-numbering formats (I tried the "use a zero as a tab leader" solution and like to have thrown my new monitor out of the window), I cannot find a solution.

Or rather, I think the solution is "you have to hand-number requirements".

For anyone who has made it this far, I truly appreciate your time and patience!

SFT

[Arnis Gubins]

If you need to get the sort order correct in an Index, then just add the correct sequence in square brackets at the end of the term in the marker, e.g. [001.2]. This is a manual entry and you need to add the leading zeros to get the numerics to sort properly. You can get the contents of your numbered paragraphs in to a user defined marker quickly (simply highlight the content and FM will stuff that into the marker dialogue box), add the sort modifier at the end, and then generate an index for that marker. Just keep in mind that you're limited to to 255 characters in any marker entry.

[Southern_Fried_Tech]

I will present this to the team as the best viable alternative! When I started down this path they did not want to have to use markers, so I had completely discarded that idea and did not think to revisit it. I definitely needed a fresh perspective. Thank you so much!

[Michael_Müller-Hillebrand · Accepted solution]

SFT,

To me this sounds like hand-numbering the requirements using a method which allows correct alphabetical sorting, i.e. 01, 02 if you don't expect more than 99 headings.

At the moment I have no better idea.

- Michael

[Southern_Fried_Tech]

Thank you for taking the time to mull this over, Michael. Hearing this from you gives me confidence that I have exhausted all avenues for generating the index without using the markers. Once again, I appreciate your assistance!