# Force SORTED export as text? **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Created:** [July 12, 2020, 3:51pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/force-sorted-export-as-text/944 "2020-07-12T15:51:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FredBOS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f475e1/32.png) [@FredBOS](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/FredBOS)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2020, 3:51pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/force-sorted-export-as-text/944/1 "2020-07-12T15:51:48Z")
Hello, currently running 2.1.14, Windows 10. It would be a small convenience, when exporting Notes from a specific deck, as plain text, to get an alpha sort. Instead, notes added a long time ago appear first, and in alpha order, followed by 30 or so notes imported recently, in the order they had in the import file. Any way to tell Anki, “please export fully sorted”? Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![guillempalausalva](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/forums.ankiweb.net/guillempalausalva/32/34258_2.png) [@guillempalausalva](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/guillempalausalva)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2020, 4:07pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/force-sorted-export-as-text/944/2 "2020-07-12T16:07:54Z")
Hi, cards or notes are sorted by time creation. Without any coding involved, you can quickly reorder the text file by any column using Excel or spreadsheet software. ---
**Author:** ![FredBOS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f475e1/32.png) [@FredBOS](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/FredBOS)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2020, 5:08pm UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/force-sorted-export-as-text/944/3 "2020-07-12T17:08:51Z")
Thank you for explanation and yes, both Excel and Word can do the sorting. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/anki2/original/1X/8f1279ababc5879d54e4838989f606cfe55af8c7.jpeg) [@system](https://forums.ankiweb.net/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2023, 5:41am UTC](https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/force-sorted-export-as-text/944/4 "2023-05-01T05:41:01Z")