Apple iWork Pages: Sort Tables and Text
Contributed by David Kirk 
Tagged: Apple Mac A basic wordprocessing function is to sort tables and text. This tutorial shows how to sort using iWork’s Pages application. Screenshots and step-by-step directions included.
Sorting text in iWork’s Pages involves just a few steps. Oddly enough, you can not sort text unless it is in a table. However, by pulling the text out of the table at the end, you can sort text that does not remain in a table.
1. Here is an unsorted table.
2. Click the column you want to sort. If you don’t want to sort the entire column, just select the items you wish to sort.
3. To see the inspector, click the View menu and then select Show Inspector
4. As highlighted below, select the Table portions of the inspector. Then select the Edit Rows and Columns “gear” button.
5. Select your sorting option.
6. Your table is now sorted…
7. If you do not want you text in a table, then do the following:
– Select the Format menu
– Select Table
– Select Convert Table to Text
8. Your text is now out of the table.
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Karin_vrij said on June 21, 2010
But if I just want to sort a certain text (reference list). Do I first have to put the text into a table, then sort, and than delete the table? Is there not just one button to sort? (like in Word….)
Pianomama7 said on November 4, 2010
This seems to be a fine solution IF your list is up to 999 lines. I, however, have a lengthy list that is now 158 pages long. Sorting just seems to be impossible for me in Pages. I had to pull the list into AppleWorks to sort!! Most of the time I view this gigantic list in Text Edit. But when I add new information to the end of the list I want to alphabetize it for easier viewing. Pages is useless for that purpose, for me.
Peter said on June 22, 2011
I have done exactly as you advise, I have a table 6 columns by 20 rows, with one column set as dates, but when I try to sort by dates it leaves one or 2 dates out of order. Numbers does the same. Excel sorts it properly.
what am I doing wrong?
pete