Sorting Dates Numerically

David experienced a problem when trying to sort dates in a table. His dates are in the format year.month.day, as in 00.12.24, 00.09.16, and 02.06.19. When he sorts the table by the dates, Word puts them in the order 02.06.19, 00.12.24, and 00.09.16.

This date order can be handled by Word automatically—in fact, it should be handled automatically, with very little intervention on your part. Follow these steps:

1. Put the insertion point anywhere within the table.
2. Choose Sort from the Table menu. (If you are using Word 2007, display the Home tab of the ribbon and click the Sort tool in the Paragraph group.) Word selects the entire table and displays the Sort dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. Using the Sort By drop-down list, choose the column containing the dates (for instance, Column 4). If your table has a header row, you can select the column using the names in the header row.
4. When you select the Sort By column, Word should automatically change the Type drop-down list to Date. If it does not, change it manually to Date.
5. Click OK. The table is sorted.

There are a couple of interesting things to note about sorting in this manner. It is best to choose a Date sort type, but you could also choose a Text sort type. Either method will work fine, provided the dates in the table are all in the current century. If the table also includes dates from the previous century, you should only choose the Date sort type.

The second thing to note is that David's results, noted at the beginning of this tip, really are sorted properly. The order 02.06.19, 00.12.24, and 00.09.16 indicates that the dates are in descending sorted order. To get the dates into ascending order, you need to make sure the Ascending option is chosen in the Sort dialog box.