New Topic: Sort by number

[Fred Ridder]

If your WI name and number are in a single paragraph and the number follows the name, there is no direct way to produce a listing that is sorted by the WI number. With that document setup, the only choice would be to do a post-process procedure to rearrange the content and sort the list, and you'd have to repeat these steps every time the document is updated.

The approach I'd recommend requires a moderate amount of set-up on a one-time basis, but would require only minimal ongoing maintenance (only when new WIs are added or when the name or number of an existing WI is changed), and would be completely automatic as far updating is concerned. And you'd also have the option of including page numbers in your listing as well as the WI number and name. 

What I would do is add a marker to each WI name/number paragraph that duplicates the name but puts the number first, since this is what you want to sort on and what you want to appear as the leading content for each item in the sorted list. These markers would take about 30 to 60 seconds per WI to set up initially, because if you select the name string it will automatically appear in the Marker box so that you don't have to retype anything except the WI number. Once you have the markers in place, it will take another couple of minutes to add a generated alphabetical list of markers to your book (anywhere you want to locate it in the file order), but then you're done. Once you have the list set up and formatted to your liking, it is trivial to update it (and all the other generated files) whenever you add or delete any WIs from the book. 

If you're not already using a conventional index, you could use the Index marker. Most of the other pre-defined marker types (Author, Comment, etc) could also be used if you don't want to use Index markers, but it's also very easy to set up a user-defined marker type that has a name that makes the purpose evident to anyone using the doc.    

-Fred Ridder


> From: Sue Curtzwiler (SusanCu at vmc.com)


> Yes, I did take a small sample and used the table in Frame to sort by columns, that looks okay, but will this retain the links like a regular TOC, can I make this a generated list and remove the table borders? 
> 
> The titles of the Work Instructions do have a paragraph tag and currently presented as shown below on the first page of the Work Instruction. This generates fine as a Table of Contents. 
> 
> Current Set Up: (only in the order as presented in each chapter, no alpha or numeric order)
> Gone With the Wind (023)
> StarTrek (012) 
> The L.A. Story (063)
> 
> Want to be Set Up: (a new generated list to put all 60+ titles in numeric order) I have the alpha order to work with, I can move the WI number to the front of the title, just need to make it with links. I can place them in a table and do the sort by column -- then what? 
> 
> 012 StarTrek
> 023 Gone With the Wind
> 063 The L.A. Story
> 
> This new arrangement would provide the users (floor technicians and trainers) a faster way to locate the Work Instruction in the Runbook. With a generated list, then in the PDF file, they can point and click, just like in the TOC. 
> 
> Finally, I want to name this list as a Quick Index and place it at the end of the book. Can I do that as an appendix, or leave it as a generated file and simply move it to the end of the book file?