SORTING THE ELEMENTS ON AN OUTLINE LEVEL


 A. To sort the elements on a particular outline level,
    choose Sort Outline Level from the Outline Menu. This
    function allows you to organize elements in much the same
    way as a dictionary organizes words.  (All children of an
    element are moved along with their parent.)  Choosing this
    function displays an option box with three settings that
    control the sort:

    1. Sort Direction.  You can sort elements in either forward or
       reverse order.  If Sort Direction is set to "Increasing,"
       the elements will be sorted in the conventional forward
       order.  If it's set to "Decreasing," the elements will be
       sorted in the reverse order.

    2. Type Of Sort.  If Type of Sort is set to "Dictionary," the
       elements will be sorted in the following order from lowest
       to highest: punctuation, numbers, upper- and lowercase
       letters without regard for case, and blanks.  If it's set to
       "Pure Ascii," the elements will be sorted in the following
       order from lowest to highest: blanks, punctuation, numbers,
       uppercase letters, and lowercase letters.

    3. Field Number To Sort.  PC-OUTLINE sorts based on the
       characters following a colon in an element.  In the child of
       this element, "Sample 1" is the 0th field, "b" is the 1st
       Field, "3" is the 2nd field, and "OK" is the 3rd.

       a) Sample 1  :b   :3    :OK



 B. Move the cursor to the children of these elements and try
    several sorts for yourself. Try different settings of Sort
    Direction, Type of Sort, and Field Number.  Watch how the
    order of the elements change; keeping track of their
    original positions is easy with the words "Sample 1,"
    "Sample 2," etc.   (Note: If you sort by a Field Number
    higher than the number of fields of any element in the sort
    --4 or more in this example--sorting will simply reverse the
    order of the elements. Doing it again will simply reverse
    the order again, back to their original places.)

    1. Sample 1  :b   :3    :OK
    2. Sample 2  :c   :41   :OK
    3. Sample 3  :d   :3    :OK
    4. Sample 4  :e   :19   :OK
    5. Sample 5  :a   :7    :OK