I have a user at my organization who is wondering why Word's Table of
Authorities feature does not sort the statutes in proper numerical order:

The list includes the following:
OTHER AUTHORITIES
San Diego City Charter § 143
San Diego City Charter § 143
San Diego City Charter § 99

The user would like the items sorted as § 40, § 90, § 143 which makes more
sense. I'm not sure why this is happening whereas other categories such as
Cases or Statutes will sort properly.

[Gretchen Uhas]

Word sorts characters from left to right. The 1 in 140 sorts before the 4 in 40 and before the 9 in 99. To sort in the order you would like to see, you would need these numbers: 040, 099, and 140. The first character of each number is sorted, then the 2nd character, and finally the final character. This does not solve your problem but, hopefully, explains why they are sorted as they are.

Originally Posted by Thomas MacEntee - Heller Ehrman LLP

I have a user at my organization who is wondering why Word's Table of
Authorities feature does not sort the statutes in proper numerical order:

The list includes the following:
OTHER AUTHORITIES
San Diego City Charter § 143
San Diego City Charter § 143
San Diego City Charter § 99

The user would like the items sorted as § 40, § 90, § 143 which makes more
sense. I'm not sure why this is happening whereas other categories such as
Cases or Statutes will sort properly.

[Jordan S]

Originally Posted by Gretchen Uhas

Word sorts characters from left to right. The 1 in 140 sorts before the 4 in 40 and before the 9 in 99. To sort in the order you would like to see, you would need these numbers: 040, 099, and 140. The first character of each number is sorted, then the 2nd character, and finally the final character. This does not solve your problem but, hopefully, explains why they are sorted as they are.

Thanks, Gretchen. This was so helpful in identifying the problem, and I was able to solve it from there! To get numerical entries to sort properly, add a space just before the first number in the "long form" of the citation (this is the hidden text that comes up when you mark the citation). For example, I was able to put "4-6" ahead of "13-12" by putting a space in front of the 4 in the long form of the citation. Admittedly, you will have that space in the citation in the table, but that's better than having a leading zero.