Sorting tables

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ProfT
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Sorting tables

Post by ProfT »

I have a table (very long, 509 rows x 9 columns) which I need to sort. I created the table in NWP because some of the cells contain RTL text and others LTR text. I have a column that I'd like to use as the key to sort the material. A regular paragraph sort does not work. So, two questions:

1) Is there a way to sort the table (keeping rows together as in an Excel sort) in NWP that I've missed?

2) How would I export this table to another program, say Numbers in iWork 08? (Simple copy and paste doesn't seem to work and Numbers won't open the RTF file.)

Any ideas?
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martin
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Post by martin »

1. There isn't, sorry. But I think it's a good idea and will file a feature request.

2. Normally copy-paste should work. However, iWork '08 (and prior) doesn't read tables from RTF and you'll have to use an intermediate program like TextEdit.
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greenmorpher
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Post by greenmorpher »

Hiya ProfT

You can copy and paste into the Tables spreadsheet http://www.x-tables.eu/more/overview.html -- at least with English text.

Kino on the Dartmouth list wrote a macro to sort tables at one stage; I don't know what the status is of it now.

If you can copy and paste into Tables, surely it should not be toop difficult to write a macro to esxport the data and transform it into something N umbers could deal with?

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com
ProfT
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Post by ProfT »

I actually found late last night that you can paste individual columns into Numbers. It's very funny. Rows will not paste correctly, and the entire table will not paste correctly. Columns will, though with one caveat. I had one column where the entries had returns within the cell. Numbers read each return as indicating a new cell. Once I removed the offending returns, that column also worked properly. So, not very elegant, but it got everything moved and I was able to sort!

Thanks for the ideas and for filing this as a feature request.

Prof T
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xiamenese
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Post by xiamenese »

I was going to suggest trying Tables, which I know supports CKJ languages very well, but I'm not sure whether it also handles RTL languages. All the languages in the "Text" pane drop down are LTR languages, and I presume are there for determining sorting conventions.

Daniel Schwill, the developer is very responsive though. You might try asking him. It will export various forms of delimited text as well as .xls which will open happily in Numbers.

Mark
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