Four commands for sorting lines are available via the Reformat Text button on the collection toolbar and via the Format menu, except when the Recycle Bin tab is active.
If no part of the active clip has been selected then the entire clip is sorted alphabetically, paragraph by paragraph.
To sort the entire clip on a specific column of text, select that column of text before sorting. Make sure that the selection does not span more than one paragraph. All the paragraphs in the file are sorted, using the selected column as the sort key.
If the selection spans more than one paragraph, then the selected paragraphs are sorted. If you want to sort only a selected number of paragraphs on a certain column then make a rectangular selection first. The paragraphs that are partially covered by the rectangular selection are sorted entirely as if the selection was a normal one. However, the sort order is determined only by the text covered by the selection.
Alphabetic Sort works on a character by character basis, even for numbers. “A19” sorts before “A4” because 1 sorts before 4.
Alphanumeric Sort orders numbers logically. When the text contains numbers that consist of multiple digits, the numbers are compared as a whole. So “A4” sorts before “A19” because 4 is less than 19. This sort order is also known as “natural sort”.
See Editing Clips and Text to learn how to use AceText.