Help incorrectly states Memo column cannot be sorted on (217132)

SYMPTOMS

The last bulleted item in the Microsoft Access Help topic "Considerations when sorting records in a table, query, form, or report" states the following:

"You can't sort a field whose data type is Memo, Hyperlink, or OLE Object."

This is incorrect.

MORE INFORMATION

The ability to sort on Memo, Hyperlink, or OLE Object fields is different depending on the Access object that contains the field you want to sort. The following list describes the sorting behavior for each field type in each Access object described by the help file.

Ability to sort on field

Object Type	Memo field	Hyperlink field	OLE Object field
Table	No	No	No
Query	Yes	Yes	No
Form	No	No	No
Report	Yes*	Yes*	No

You can sort Access reports based on both Memo and Hyperlink fields in the Sorting and Grouping dialog box but you must type the name of the Memo or Hyperlink field in the Field/Expression box because those fields will not show up in the list of available fields.

Note Memo fields will only be sorted based on the first 255 characters.

REFERENCES

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

217138 Sort options dimmed for Memo columns in datasheets and forms