Quark Forums

Does anyone know if it is possible to sort a list of imported text in quark 7 alphabetically?

Can’t find a sort-function, but this works very well:

1. Make a new stylesheet (TextToSort) for the text you want to sort.
2. Make a new stylesheet for the this text after sorting (TextSorted)

These stylesheets can have the same specifications of course.

3. Go to Edit / Lists / Make new list
4. Make a new list from the stylesheet TextToSort, text only, format as TextSorted).
5. Go to window / Show lists
6. Select the text you want to sort and click update in the list window.
7. Keep your text selected, then click build.

It now sorts your text and changes the stylesheet. When you click update again in the list window, you will see there is no text anymore. For every following list in your document you can do the same.
Remember you need to make the stylesheet TextSorted, otherwise it will create sorted lists of all the text in your document with the stylesheet TextToSort.

This is a cool trick as long the text is freshly imported with no specific Style Sheets applied to the paragraphs or words. (In my case I sometimes need to sort paragraphs that are bibliography with local formatting applied. I can't seem to sort strings keeping that formatting.)
Another trick would be using an AppleScript provided you are working on a Mac. (I have compiled such a script but again I can't seem to retain formatting.)

Don't know if this will help or not as it's for v6.x:

http://www.durrant.co.uk/sorttextm.html

Jean-Marie,

Is there any way I could get a copy of the script that you wrote?

Please. I'm running quark 7.3 on a mac pro.

Eyoungren,

Thanks, tried the extension but it is not compatable with version 7.

kjeld,

Thanks for your reply, I have not had a chance to try this solution yet, but looks to be a suitable workaround for the moment.

PrepressPaul:

Jean-Marie,

Is there any way I could get a copy of the script that you wrote?

Please. I'm running quark 7.3 on a mac pro.

Sure! Or even better, here is the code. It's a mixture of Apple's apple script plus Tim Conner's hand and finally my adaptation to Quark - which was the easiest part of it all :lol:
Select the paragraphs you want to sort prior to run the script.
Hope it's OK with you.
[quote user=olive:986246db26] This script will convert anything in the finder to text, and then sort that text. Procedure is to copy an item. Run this script from the script menu, then paste. (Original Script by Tim Conner. Adaptation to QuarkXPress by Jean-Marie Schwartz :-) )[/color:986246db26][/i]
*)
tell application "QuarkXPress Passport"
     activate
     select menu item "Copy" of menu "Edition"
end tell


set the clipboard to list_to_string(ASCII_Sort(string_to_list(«class ktxt» of ((the clipboard as text) as record), return)), return)

tell application "QuarkXPress Passport"
     activate
     select menu item "Paste" of menu "Edition"
end tell


on ASCII_Sort(my_list)
     --from apple
     set the index_list to {}
     set the sorted_list to {}
     repeat (the number of items in my_list) times
          set the low_item to ""
          repeat with i from 1 to (number of items in my_list)
               if i is not in the index_list then
                    set this_item to item i of my_list as text
                    if the low_item is "" then
                         set the low_item to this_item
                         set the low_item_index to i
                    else if this_item comes before the low_item then
                         set the low_item to this_item
                         set the low_item_index to i
                    end if
               end if
          end repeat
          set the end of sorted_list to the low_item
          set the end of the index_list to the low_item_index
     end repeat
     return the sorted_list
end ASCII_Sort


on snr(the_string, search_string, replace_string)
     return my list_to_string((my list_to_string(the_string, search_string)), replace_string)
end snr

on list_to_string(the_list, the_delim)
     my atid(the_delim)
     set the_string to (every text item of the_list) as string
     my atid("")
     return the_string
end list_to_string

on string_to_list(the_string, the_delim)
     my atid(the_delim)
     set the_list to (every text item of the_string) as list
     my atid("")
     return the_list
end string_to_list

on atid(the_delim)
     set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the_delim
end atid

Thanks Jean-Marie, this is going to come in very handy.

:lol: Paul

http://www.durrant.co.uk/Sort%20Text%201.4.1%20Mac.zip

Works with v7 and retains all local formatting.

Thanks for the tip! That's what I was looking for! This allows me to take on a big project for a publishing client!

In XPress 8.5, I select the text and save text as a Microsoft Word document. Open it in Word and use the sort text command. Then import the text back into XPress. All local styling should remain.