Index Entries with "." Do Not Alphabetize As Expected

• Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 2.0, 2.0a, 2.0a-CD, 2.0b, 2.0c, 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c

SUMMARY

In Word for Windows, when you add a term that is preceded by a period (such as ".Dot") to an index, the term may not appear in the alphabetical order you expect. This is due to the method Word uses to order indexes and is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

Word uses a standard alphanumeric sort order for indexing. Entries that do not begin with an alpha or numeric character are sorted first. Entries that begin with non-alphanumeric characters (such as periods) are first ordered numerically by the ANSI numeric code that corresponds to the (non- alphanumeric) character. If the index contains more than one such entry and the entries contain alpha characters, they are ordered alphabetically as you would expect -- except that they will still precede all entries that begin with numbers or letters.

Entries beginning with numbers are sorted after those beginning with special characters. Entries beginning with alpha characters are sorted last. The following list shows a sample index sorted according to these rules:

   .bak
   .doc
   .dot
   1 Microsoft Way
   2 too many
   Apple
   Banana

WORKAROUND

If you want INDEX (XE) entries beginning with special characters to be sorted within the entire index, instead of appearing first, leave off the special character when you add the entry to the index, generate the index, and then manually add the special character. Every time you regenerate the index, you'll need to manually add the special characters.