When you use the Bibliography feature in Citation, references are automatically alphabetized when the "Alphabetize" option is checked.

There are other situations, however, which might require you to sort all the records in your datafile. You might want to sort the records by Author and date for browsing, or you might want to sort by the primary (first) keyword.

The Sort feature enables you to re-order the records in your datafile by the contents of any field. There are number of different ways you can re-order your datafile, with different sort types and sort orders.

To sort a database

1. With your datafile open, click Tools, Sort. The Sort dialog will display.
2. Choose the Sort Type.

   If you choose one of the pre-set Bibliographic sorts, Citation will automatically set the fields to use for sorting.

   If you have chosen Sort By Fields, you will now need to click the drop button and choose the fields for the sort.

3. Choose the Sort Order.
4. Click OK to begin sorting the database.
5. When the sort is completed, the Sort Finished Dialog will display. You will have the option to:
   • Choose Retrieve to open the sorted datafile as an untitled datafile.
   • Choose Save As to assign a name to the sorted datafile and save it to disk.
   • Choose Cancel to abandon the sorted datafile without saving.
6. To write a bibliography for the sorted datafile:
   1. Click Retrieve to open the sorted, untitled datafile.
   2. Make sure there is a blank document open in your word processor.
   3. Click Generate, Bibliography from datafile, and set the Bibliography options to the style you prefer.
   4. Click OK to write the bibliography.

IMPORTANT
When you have finished sorting records from your database, make certain you assign a new name for the database, so that your original database is not overwritten. Or, if you want to use the sorted database as your main database, you will automatically have a backup by leaving the original on your disk.

We recommend assigning a filename with an .srt extension.

For instance, if the name of your datafile is biblio.dat, the sorted datafile should be named biblio.srt.

You can use the Bibliography feature to write citations for the records in the sorted or reordered datafile.

Options on the Sort dialog:

Sort Order

Ascending
Sorts records in alphabetical order, A-Z and 1-9. Descending
Sort records in reverse alphabetic order, Z-A and 9-1.

Sort Type

Bibliographic (Author, Year, Title)
This setting re-orders the records in your datafile based on the contents of the Author field, the Year field, and the primary title field for the type of work. For instance: in records for Journal articles, the Article / Essay ttl field is the primary title field; for Book records, the Book Title field is the primary title field.

Records will be sorted alphabetically, by author. Works by the same author are ordered by year of publication. Works published in the same year will then be ordered by title. Unsigned works are ordered by title, year.

Bibliographic (Author, Title, Year)
This setting re-orders the records in your datafile based on the contents of the Author field, the primary Title field, and the Year field.

Records will be sorted alphabetically, by author. Works by the same author are ordered by title. Works with the same title are then ordered by the year of publication.

Unsigned works are ordered by title, year.

Sort By Fields
This setting enables you to choose the fields Citation uses for re-ordering the records.

When you choose Sort by Fields, you will need to choose the fields you want to use for the sort.

Citation will use the contents of the 1st Field to re-order the records in the datafile.

Records containing the same text in the 1st Field will be ordered by the contents of the 2nd Field. Records containing the same text in both the 1st Field and the 2nd Field will be ordered by the contents of the 3rd Field, and so on.