Overriding alphabetical sorting of columns.

[fishkake]

After quite some time of searching, I found the following. This is in the Domino help, but I had trouble finding it and found it VERY useful! My problem was that I wanted a column of Month NAMES (not numbers), sorted correctly instead of alphabetically.

The sorting column does not need to be visible. Sometimes you may want to use a hidden column as your sorting column. To hide a column, check the Hide box on the Advanced tab of the Column Properties box.

For example, a Service Request form contains a Priority field, which uses the following choice list:
Urgent
High
Medium
Low

You want the By Priority view to sort documents by the value in the Priority field, but you don't want them to appear in ordinary alphabetical order (High, Low, Medium, Urgent). You want users to see Urgent-priority documents at the top of the view, High-priority documents next, and so on.

You create a column that:
*Is hidden
*(Optional) Has no title
*(Optional) Is one character wide
*Uses this formula to determine the order of each priority:
@If(Priority="Urgent";"1";Priority="High";"2";Priority="Medium";"3";"4")
*Is sorted in ascending order

You add a column to the right of the hidden column that:
*Is not hidden
*Has the title "Priority"
*Is 10 characters wide
*Displays the value of the Priority field
*Is not sorted