Sort orders need to be created at the workspace level, so that they can be used on any data category in any of the lexica in the workspace. In the left frame of the Workspace select the Sort orders tab. In the list in the left frame you will see all the sort orders available for the workspace (initially this list is empty). To create a new sort order click the + icon and give a Name and Description to the sort order in the pop-up frame.

When you select the new sort order in the left fram. the right frame Sort order editor becomes active: the name and the description of the sort orders are heading a table which consists of two columns, each with a small character western alphabet. To adjust:

1. Remove characters from the list Select the character and click the - icon. The character will be removed from the list.

2. Define the characters to be sorted under a specific character. Select the initial character (e.g. a) in the left column. Define the list of characters that you would like to be sorted under the 'a'. e.g. AaÀàÁáÂâÃãÄä and add this list in the right column. Beware of the order in this list, LEXUS will prioritize (first in the list comes first in the sort order).

3. Using combined characters in the list When you are using e.g the combination of '-' and 'a' as in '-a' and you would like this to be sorted under 'a', then you should put this combination in square brackets in the list in the right column [-a]. A example of this is shown in Figure 5.1

4. Using combined characters as initial character In some languages a character exists only as a combination of two. E.g in Dutch there is a character [ij] combining the 'i' and the 'j'. Some people like to this as one character and sort it in the alphabet after the 'x' and before the 'y'. To do this move to the location in the alphabet where you want to add a character and click 'Add'. An empty line appears where you may add the new character. In the left column there is no need to use the square brackets: the character will look like the example in the Figure. More complex sets of characters have been seen, espcially in endangered languages. E.g the Iwaidja alphabet contains e.g. a combination of '^(rt)a' which should be sorted under 'a'. Because the '(' symbol is used for development code, the combination needs to be formatted as [^\(rt\)a] in the sort order table. For questions on special sort orders send an e-mail to Alexander Koenig.

After you have created a sort order, make sure you Save it through the main menu in the top frame,File --> Save

Figure 5.1. Setting sort order for combined characters