Sorting Russian Word Lists in MS Word

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Kjetil Rå Hauge wrote:

> Paul B. Gallagher wrote:
> 
>> [...]
> 
>> 1) Convert accented "a" to bold "a," accented "ye" to bold "ye," etc.
>>
>> 2) Sort per standard procedure (Word will ignore the bolding for 
>> sorting purposes).
>>
>> 3) Convert bold "a" to accented "a," bold "ye" to accented "ye," etc.
> 
> 
> A related workaround:
> 
> 1) Use a two-column table with the first column containing unaccented 
> text and the second containing accented text
> 2) Sort table by first column
> 3) Delete first column before printing/publishing
> 
> On a Mac this could be automated using Applescript. BTW, Word handles 
> Cyrillic (Unicode) case conversion correctly - quite impressive.

Here's take-off on that approach that doesn't involve deleting anything:

1) Create a two- or three-column table: 1 = unaccented, 2 = accented, 3 
= gloss or 1 = unaccented, 2 = accented + gloss. Sort as desired.

This is easiest (and I think prettiest) if none of your table cells have 
borders, but I've provided solutions for both cases.

2) Table | Properties | Options -- disable automatic resizing.

3) Select the entire first column and *only* the first column, and
    a) Format | Borders and Shading -- eliminate borders
       except where shared with the second column;
    b) Format | Font -- set to "hidden";

4) Table | Properties | Table -- set indent from left so the second 
column aligns with the left margin. Formula for calculating size of 
table indent in inches:
    -(CW1-LCM-0.01) if column 2 has borders;
    -CW1 if column 2 has no borders;
where CW1 is the width of the first (hidden) column (see Table | 
Properties | Column) and LCM is the left cell margin (see Table | 
Properties | Options).

Note: Word will not let you adjust this figure by 0.01" at a time, so 
for example if you want to change from 1.00" to 0.99", you have to 
change by too much and then change back to the desired value.

5) Table | Properties | Column -- adjust width of last column so it 
reaches the right margin.

This way all the content remains in the file but is not visible on 
paper. If necessary, you can temporarily unhide the content for editing 
purposes (e.g., to add or delete an entry) and then hide it again. You 
won't inadvertently save the file after deleting column 1 because you 
didn't delete column 1.

Note: Word cannot sort by column 1 while the text is hidden. You must 
unhide the text (Format | Font) if you need to re-sort. But you don't 
have to change the borders or any of the table format.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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