How to Alphabetize in Google Docs?

November 22, 2021

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In this tutorial, you will learn how to alphabetize in Google Docs. We recommend you study this manual carefully and start practicing.

Checklist of crucial points we aim to highlight here:

Adding the Add-on
Alphabetizing the List with the Add-on
Alphabetizing the List with Google Sheets

Watch the video from https://thegoodocs.com/ and learn How to Alphabetize in Google Docs:

It’s really handy to have a list organized in some way: numerical or alphabetical, for example, commonly in ascending order. Google Docs don’t actually have such a feature built-in, but Google Docs allow you to access Google’s huge marketplace with hundreds of add-ons that can significantly extend your possibilities within a document. And we are going to use one named Doc Tools. It is available for free in the Google Workspace Market. So, let’s get it first.

Adding the Add-on

On the document, go to the toolbar on top, to the Add-ons button, and press it. Here you have the one and only active button — Get add-ons. So, press it

Now, this new window is the add-on search engine on the Google Workspace Marketplace. Here you need the search field on the top of the toolbar. Press it and enter Doc Tools. And press Enter to confirm. The first extension on the left is the one we need — Doc Tools. So, press it

This will open its page on the marketplace, and here, next to the extension’s name, press the Install button

The add-on will ask for some permissions, which is OK. So, we click CONTINUE

And we are getting one more window where we need to sign in to our Google account to confirm the action. So, select the one from which you are working with the document. We will choose our sample Google account

It will show what permissions the extension is asking for. These are OK, and we go down to press the Allow button

Then we’ll get a confirmation window that says that the Doc Tools has been installed

And we can close the window with this cross mark (or press the Done button) and then close the marketplace window as well

Alphabetizing the List with the Add-on

Back to the document. Here's our list. And as you can see, the words are certainly not in the correct alphabetical order that we want to change. So, we highlight the list that we want to put in the correct alphabetical order

Then go to the toolbar on top, to the Add-ons button. Press it. Here we locate the Doc Tools extension and drag the mouse to it. This will open one more menu where we need the second Sort the selection ascending button. Press it. It will take a few seconds to execute the action

And here we go. The list is sorted according to alphabetical order. Or you can do it the opposite way — the descending order

NB! And be aware that it works correctly only when each item on the list is placed on a separate paragraph or listed using bullet points. So, make sure to put all items separately. And it doesn’t matter how many words there are in each line. But they must be separated.

Alphabetizing the List with Google Sheets

And briefly about the second way performed via Google Sheets. For this, we press Undo in our sample Google Doc and return the list in non-alphabetical order to show how to alphabetize it with Google Sheets.

Select your list and copy it by either pressing the right mouse button and selecting Copy or by using the Ctrl + C shortcut on a PC or Command + C on a Mac

Then go to the toolbar on top and press the Docs icon to return to the Docs homepage

When you are here, click on the three lines icon next to the Docs icon and press the Google Sheets in the menu

Now, this is a Google Sheets homepage. And we create a new blank spreadsheet by pressing the plus icon

Now on the table, press the 1 A cell and paste that list with a Ctrl + V shortcut on a PC or Command + V on a Mac

When the list is here and put like this, press on the A column on top to highlight the entire column

And then, go to the top toolbar, press Data, and then Sort range in the menu. In this window, as you can see, you can select Sort range by column A (A to Z) that is the alphabetical order. Or you can select Sort range by column A (Z to A) if you want. Also, you have here Advanced range sorting options. We choose the first option — Sort range by column A (A to Z) and press it

And here we go. The list was sorted due to alphabetical order. Then you can highlight it, copy it, and paste it back into your document. This is it

We hope this tutorial will help you learn how to alphabetize in Google Docs. Good luck!

Written by

Team TheGoodocs

We are a team of creative people who dream of sharing knowledge and making your work and study easier. Our team of professional designers prepares unique free templates. We create handy template descriptions for you to help you choose the most suitable one. On our blog, you'll find step-by-step tutorials on how to use Google Products. And our YouTube channel will show you all the ins and outs of Google products with examples.