Alphabetize Lists in Pages

[Knightoftheapp]

Hello all,

I created a list in Pages on my iPad 2. I have iOS 7. Can anyone tell me how to alphabetize a list?


Thanks.

 

[twerppoet]

There is no way to alphabetize a list in Pages. Well, short of doing it manually; cut, paste, cut, paste, etc. . .

However; you can sort a table.

After you have created your table and entered the list, with the table selected, tap the bar above the list so that it turns blue. One of the popup menu items will be Sort.

Using the various table style options (turning on/off grid lines, boarders, etc.) in combination with the arrange options (to place the table where you want it), you should be able to get results similar to a list in appearance.

For bullets, use an extra column with a bullet character and right align it. Or, you can copy and paste individual list items from a list into the table, awkward as that is. While the list feature is not available when entering text into cells, it seems to honor it if you paste already text already formatted as a list.

You won't be able to get exactly the same affect as a list, but this is the only way I can think of to have a sortable list in Pages.

 

[twerppoet]

If you created the list in Pages with the sole intent of having a list, and being able to sort it, Numbers would be a much better choice.

 

[twerppoet]

Been playing around a bit, and have come up with an interesting workaround, if you have both Numbers and Pages.

1. Select and copy the list in Pages.
2. Paste the list into the Notes app.
3. Copy the text in the Notes app.
4. Paste the list into a table column in Numbers.
5. Tap the bar above the column in Numbers and choose Sort when the menu appears.
6. Select and copy the cells containing the list in Numbers.
7. Paste the list back into Notes.
8. Copy the list again.
9. Back in Pages, select all the text of the list, then choose the Paste option; to replace the list with the sorted version.

No, you can't copy and paste directly between Pages and Numbers. When pasting from Number to Pages it creates a table. When pasting from Pages to Numbers it enters the entire list into a single cell.

You're using Notes as a go between to strip the formatting from the text, so Pages and Numbers sees the pasted content as plain text.


This should work as a one time fix. You'll want a better method if you're going to sort the list over and over, like stopping half way with the list in Numbers where, you can sort it as often as you like.