I need a specific alphabetizing program. PLEASE HELP!!!!

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OK!
As short and sweet as I can. I have a ton of backed up movies I would like to alphabetize the titles of, but not the coinciding number in front of them. I inadvertently didn't thing of this until all these movies were "numbered."

These titles....

1. Die Hard
2. Zoolander
3. Willy Wonka
4. As good As It Gets
5. Happiness

....should look like this:

4. As Good As It Gets
1. Die Hard
5. Happiness
3. Willy Wonka
2. Zoolander

I don't care about the number part being out of order. I just want to be able to look a title up by the name, and reference the number to grab without having to scroll through hundreds of movies. I thought this was a no-brainer, and there would be a program out there? PLEASE HELP!!!!

e-mail me if you need to: [email protected]

Thanks a million!
 

eric


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are you talking about movie files within finder or a text list you have somewhere?

if it's finder, i'm not sure how you would do this.

if it's a list, it shouldn't be too hard. i know for windows, the program textpad (shareware) can sort by a column, so if you wanted to sort by the third or fourth character in every line, you could do that. smultron for macs, may have the same functionality, but i haven't tried that yet...
 
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No Dice on those....

I have a Mac, so I tried the Smultron app with no luck. Thanks though. I should clarify it is in fact, a list that was made in a appleworks word document, and I DO want the numbers to stay with the titles. I need the words alphabetized, but move the words and the numbers in front of them to a coinciding alphabetical order as my example shows in my initial post.

Any one else have any ideas?
 

eric


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again (in order to help you better), is this a text file or are they actual files in a folder, or something else?
 
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As far as I know, there is no way of alphabetizing them as long as they have the number in front.
What you could do, is simply use the search bar at the top of the Finder window. Just plug in your title you want to find, and then limit the search to that particular folder. That will find the specific title you are looking for and isolate it for you.

Picture 1.png

Picture 2.png
 

eric


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simply use the search bar at the top of the Finder window

d'oh, so obvious!
icon14.gif
 
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As far as I know, there is no way of alphabetizing them as long as they have the number in front.
What you could do, is simply use the search bar at the top of the Finder window. Just plug in your title you want to find, and then limit the search to that particular folder. That will find the specific title you are looking for and isolate it for you.

I have to ask, where did the watermark-type symbols come from on your finder window? i.e., crossout circle, "i", and the eject
 
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I have to ask, where did the watermark-type symbols come from on your finder window? i.e., crossout circle, "i", and the eject
They are part of the ShapeShifter icon set, "Cathode" I think it is called. Same set that gives the black folders and icons.
 
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Need a hard copy!

I could do the search as you pointed out, but it's not a fact of where it's at on my computer....I know the folder. I just would like to eliminate having to scroll through 1000 movies in appleworks to find a certain title. If you type in under the finder window, it points out the folder, but I still have to scroll through that. I plan to be mobile with this set, and would like to have a hard copy without having to take a computer with me. Plus there are always those times where you know the movies begins with a certain letter, you just can't think of the name? This would help. I really can't believe there isn't a program out there for this, but 'oh well. Thanks again though guys!
 
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spotlight search the file?
 

eric


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you could use neooffice or whatever the new version of calc is to create a csv of the file (space delimited or period delimited if each of your numbers has a period after it as you show in your example). then your titles should be in the second column of a spreadsheet formatted file. then it's a simple click to sort by the second column.

if you are still in need of help by the next time i get to my mac, i could probably do a step-by-step using neooffice or a text editor. i'll subscribe to this thread to remind myself to check...
 
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hey eric i changed my signature for you
 
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I know the folder. I just would like to eliminate having to scroll through 1000 movies in appleworks to find a certain title. If you type in under the finder window, it points out the folder, but I still have to scroll through that.
I was under the impression that these were all seperate movie files, named accordingly. I used my Pictures folder with several different files in it and used one particular title to locate that one, specific file. If that is the case, then limiting the search to the particular folder will eliminate scrolling as the example pics I included shows.


If this is a document with titles on it, then the method I suggested obviously won't work.
If it is a document, when you have said document open, you could use the Command+F key combo and that will automatically go to the title you plug into that prompt.
 

eric


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If it is a document, you could use the Command+F key combo and that will automatically go to the title you plug into that prompt.

i get the impression from his last post that he may be in a situation where he'll have the movies and a hard copy of the list but not the computer. in this case, searching a softcopy of the file wouldn't work.

i'm also guessing to that this isn't a one time sort, that you may add dvds to the file and need to resort at that time. the fix i've suggested above, and will try to help further with should help you maccccman.


matt, i don't think i've given you a hard time about your grammer have i? it's funny anyway, the sig i mean!
 
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I really can't believe there isn't a program out there for this, but 'oh well. Thanks again though guys!
Do you always give up so easily.

If this is a plain text file output from Appleworks, I know this can be altered, because I have done something similar in the past. I'm on vacation, so won't consider writing the needed script until next week. You'll have to ask politely.

If this is an Appleworks file, I have no answer because that gets complicated. Perhaps their are some functions that could be applied to clean up the data properly into separate columns. That would depend on which Appleworks application you used to create your list.
 

eric


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no matter what kind of doc, it could always by copied and pasted into a simple text editor.

it's just a matter of then finding an editor that can sort based on column or creating a csv. i've done this on windows software numerous times from all sorts of data sources, even nastily formatted emails (though some manual cleanup was provided).

why do i feel like i'm interrupting and saying "I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home. They're not much bigger than two meters."?
 
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There might be hope....

I have just tampered with this thing here and there trying to find a solution for a couple months now with no luck. I have tried soooo many programs. It was made in Appleworks as a word processing .cwk. If this is all you need to make it happen, I guess the next step is to beg, and plead with you to write me an app, or use your infinite wisdom in finding a way. I have niether the brains or patience in doing so. Thanks again, and I look forward to solving this problem.
 
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This problem might be solvable with the following terminal line.

sort -b -d -f -t '( |.)' -k 2 yourfile.txt > newfile.txt

Save your file as a plain text file in your home directory. If you need to, go through TextEdit if Appleworks can't save a plain text file, but some else.

Open the Terminal app found in the Utilities folder.

Type the above command I gave you replacing 'yourfile' with the name you saved to.

Anything more complicated will have to wait til next week.

If some of the sorting doesn't work as expected, you'll have to mail me, via the forums mail, sample records.
 
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Alrighty then...

I would love more than anything to say, "I know exactly what you mean," but unfortunatley I cannot. Is there a "lamens terms" way to put it.

Ha. Just being honest!
 

eric


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do you have neo office?
 

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