How does Zotero rank or sort titles of books

cl417
I am adding 10 volumes of the collected works of Edgar Allen Poe to my Zotero library. Each volume begins with the title "The works of Edgar Allen Poe" and then includes a number from 1 to 10, and then has a brief description of the contents of that volume.

For example, the first four volumes are:

The works of Edgar Allen Poe 1 Introduction and poems
The works of Edgar Allen Poe 2 Tales of marvelous adventure
The works of Edgar Allen Poe 3 Tales of marvelous adventure
The works of Edgar Allen Poe 4 Tales of crime

But when I am looking at the library, the titles appear in an apparently random order, like this:

The works of Edgar Allen Poe 2 Tales of marvelous adventure
The works of Edgar Allen Poe 3 Tales of marvelous adventure
The works of Edgar Allen Poe 1 Introduction and poems
The works of Edgar Allen Poe 4 Tales of crime

Why doesn't Zotero list them in alphabetical/numerical order, as it does for other series of volumes that I have?


  • bwiernik
    Do you have the full title of “The works of Edgar Allen Poe 2 Tales of marvelous adventure”, etc in the Title field, or are the volume number and volume title in another field?
  • cl417
    Hi bwiernik,

    Everything is in the title field.
  • adamsmith
    And that might be an obvious question but you are _sorting_ by title? (and we're talking about the Zotero middle pane, right?)
  • cl417
    I am not sorting by title, I'm sorting by call number. In this case the call numbers are all the same ("810 Poe"). But I have other multi-volume works that have the same call number, but which sort correctly.
  • bwiernik
    If you click the column selection, what is listed under the Secondary Sort (Call Number)?
  • cl417
    Also, when I do sort by title, the Poe works are sorted correctly.
  • bwiernik
    After sorting by Call Number, when you click the column selection button, what is listed under the Secondary Sort (Call Number)?
  • cl417
    The secondary sort was by "creator," which I assume is the author in the case of a book. But then I selected "title" as the secondary sort and now the volumes are sorted correctly.

    Thanks very much for your help!
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