How did you get the list into Word?  If someone used a wizard, they should
have the original database.  If not, I would bite the bullet if this is a
long list.  Word provides mail merge from a database and lists should always
take advantage of this feature.  To convert the file back to a database,
(and I assume your file is a table of cells 3 across created by picking a
standard label size from the wizard) I would save the file as unformatted
text (.txt).  If every label has the same number of rows (name, street,
citystatezip) then writing a small program to convert it to comma separated
values (.csv) would be simple.  Then you can open it into excel or access,
and using the merge documents wizard, place fields into a label template.
This is a much more efficient way to maintain the list, and it allows all
the search, sort, and selection power of the data storing program to be
used.  If you don't know someone who can help you with the conversion, here
is a technique I use for simple lists.
Open the .txt file in excel.  It will all fit in column A.
In column b, write a formula that puts in an id number on each name.
b1 b2 and b3 each contain a 1.
b4 contains =b1+1
b5 contains =b2+1
b6 contains =b3+1
copy b4 through b6 and paste it from b7 to the bottom of the list.
column C contains the datatype.  1 = name 2 = street 3= citystatezip.
C1 contains 1
c2 contains 2
c3 contains 3
c4 contains =c1
c5 contains =c2
c6 contains =c3
copy c4 through c6 and paste it from c7 to the to the bottom of the list.
Now copy column b and 'edit,paste special, values' back on to b1.  This will
get rid of the formulas.  Do the same for column C. You need to sort and you
can't have formulas in the table, after sorting they will change.
Now insert a row at row 1, and put in column header titles.  The filter
wizard needs a header row.  Put 'Data' in a1. Put 'ID' in B1, and 'TYPE' in
C1.
Now filter the list by column C=1 and copy the results to a new sheet.
Repeat for column C=2 and column C=3.
Sort each sheet by column B, then cut and paste the sheets back together,
putting street to the right of name, and city to the right of street.  Now
you have an address on one row.  Put labels in the first row, get rid of all
the id number columns, save and close the workbook.  You can now use the
workbook as a database to merge into word.
To sort by zip, you need to select the citystatezip column and choose
'Data,text to columns' wizard.  Check 'space' as the separator and it will
put the zip alone in a column. (some zips will be offset a column because
the cityname has two words). Discard all the city state columns, and now you
can use the remaining zip column to do a sort.  The last name is more
complicated, but you can use excel functions to extract it from column a.
Again, I only use this for very simple lists, anything more complicated,
like variable number of address lines, names with and without titles, etc,
involve a conversion program.  There IS one desparate measure you can do in
Excel for even a complicated list, but you will have to write me because
this message is long enough.

Personally I can write something like this in C in about an hour, a good
student could do it in VBA and Office faster.  Someone who knows Perl might
find it even easier to do.
Tom Turak

-----Original Message-----
From: grz [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2001 12:42 PM

I have a file that has been created to use and print out mailing labels.
The document is three columns wide by XXX rows.  Is there a way to sort the
list by alpha, zip?  I realize there will most likely be some formatting
involved, however, anything short of retyping everything would be of great
help.

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