Get your Table of Authorities to sort things right

When gathering all the statutory codes and other enumerated authorities marked for a table of authorities, Microsoft Word sorts these character by character. That means, for instance, that 42 U.S.C. § 1983 is listed before 42 U.S.C. § 2. The computer sorts all the 1s in that first numerical group together first, then all the 2s, and so on. Only after it reaches the end of the list does it move on to the next digit (e.g., the 9 in 1983). Fortunately, there’s an easy fix to this. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to implement with Microsoft Word’s built-in features. But a very simple macro will take care of that.

As you might guess, the solution involves inserting a character before those lower digits to register that 2 as a 02. But we don’t want 02 showing up in our Table ofAuthorities. Citing the code as 42 U.S.C. § 02 just isn’t right. Enter the zero-width space.

This character, like those paragraph breaks, will show up only when you have formatting marks showing. So it disappears when you hide those or print your document. When you have them showing, it looks like a bordered box, like this: . You can insert it using a Alt code character with ALT + 8203. But if you don’t want to remember that or want it to be easier, set up a macro. Just copy and paste the following into the Visual Basic window:

Sub InsertZeroWidthSpace()
    Selection.InsertAfter ChrW(8203)
    Selection.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
End Sub

(I found all that here. Go to the Developer tab and click on Visual Basic to paste the above and create a macro.)

Then assign the macro a keyboard shortcut (File\Options\Customize Ribbon\Customize) or a button to click and put on your Quick Access Toolbar File\Options\Quick Access Toolbar\), or both. (See here for more on assigning macros a keyboard shortcut.) I’ve done both. I’ve assigned CTRL + . (that’s a period—I already have CTRL + space assigned to a nonbreaking space, handy for inserting them after section symbols, i.e., §) and this icon: (since it resembles the proofreading mark for inserting a space.

You don’t have to insert the zero-width space in every instance of a citation that will eventually end up in the Table of Authorities. You just need to make sure it’s inserted in the “\l” section of the authority mark. So I don’t insert these until the later stages of drafting, as I’m putting together the Table of Authorities. Once I see the behavior of improper sorting, I go into the marked citations and change each “\l” section. There is only one of those for each section cited, no matter how many times I’ve cited it, so I don’t have to find ever single instance. (See here for more on using Word’s Table of Authorities feature or here for a video.)

Remember that you’ll need to create a new Table of Authorities—or at least replace the category section—to change the way entries are sorted.

This method will work with other tasks in Word in which you need proper sorting, like indexes.

Have a question about writing, software, navigating courts, or resources that are helpful in any of those? I am compulsive about finding answers, so let me know if you have a question about something that might relate to all this. Post a question at www.facebook.com/TatumsTips/.