Tip 385: Control Sort Order on Childrens Names

A surprisingly common complaint involves the Children field on Contacts.
Outlook automatically sorts the names alphabetically, so if you enter the names by age: "Liz, Jessie, Cecilia", Outlook changes the order to "Cecilia, Jessie, Liz".

Is there a way to turn this off in Outlook? Sure. Leave out the comma. If you need a separator between the names, try any character except a comma.
(I know a dash works.)

Published January 12, 2007. Last updated on June 17, 2011.

Related posts:

Last week a reader asked how to change the tab order on a contacts form. A second way to change the tab stops is using the Tab OrdTip 327: More on Changing Tab Order Tip 20: Check Names When you enter a contact you can enter that person's birthday and it will show up in the calendar. What about that person'Tip 287: Enter Spouse and Children's Birthdays