6 Keywords: Alphabet, Sorting Lists, Sorting Tables, References, Word Tables, Bibliography

Because I find it hard to sort things into alphabetical order I tend to use tables in Word - I have Word 2003 and there are two ways of doing this...

Click where you want the table to appear in the document. From the Table menu, select Insert Table. Specify the number of rows and columns. You can also specify the column width by typing a number in the Column width box; note that if you select the Auto option, Word creates a table running from the left to the right margin, with equally sized columns. After making your selections, click OK.

Creating a Table with the Insert Table Button Click where you want the table to appear in the document. From the standard toolbar, click the Insert Table button. Many commands related to tables such as the Insert Table button can also be found on the Tables and Borders toolbar.

You can turn on this toolbar by selecting the Viewmenu, Toolbars, and then Tables and Borders. When you click the Insert Table button, specify the number of columns and rows in your table by dragging your mouse over the drop-down grid that appears. Below the grid, Word shows you the numerical size of the table. When you release the mouse button, Word inserts the table. You only want one cell or one row that goes across the page for references e.g.

Use the paragraph menu to add spaces between rows.

Keep the border around the table for the moment and use the ‘tab’ key to add the next row when you have added a reference.

You will ‘turn off’ the borders when you have finished so they are not seen in the print out.

One you have added all the references you will need to put them into alphabetical order by author. This is done by highlighting the contents of the table.

To select the entire table, click the table selection handle at the top left corner of the table. This handle also allows you to move the table to a different place in the document. Now go to the table menu and sort the contents by Column 1 in ascending order.

Highlight the table again and remove the borders – click on right hand mouse button – choose borders and shading – none or use the menu bar and choose no border.

Final result:

References