A. in sub sorting

[AElfwine Mischler]

I’m using Sky 8 to create the style sheet for a book I’m copyediting. Main heads are Names, Punctuation, Terms/Words, Transliterations. There are 2 levels of subs because Transliterations are further broken down into Arabic, Chinese, and Urdu.

I am not inverting the names in sub-1 because this edited volume contains Chinese names among many others. Variations in spelling appear in sub-2, and sometimes the same name appears with the elements flipped. Something for the chapter author to deal with.

Some names only provide a first initial, and I have several (non-Chinese) names with the same surname. For example A. Patel, R. Patel, T. Patel. Again, these are in subs. The name “A. Patel” is sorting with the P’s. Sky seems to be seeing the “A.” as an indefinite article even though there’s a period after it. So my questions are:

1. Why is it doing this?
2. Is there a way to override this in this and any similar cases? I’m guessing that adding a second A in hidden text will work?

Thanks and happy indexing.


Ælfwine Mischler
Personal email: aelfwine...@gmail.com
Business email: aelf...@MischlerEditorial.com
www.MischlerEditorial.com
American Society for Indexing (ASI)

[Jochen Fassbender]

Yes, hidden repeated text should work, though I don't know why SKY 8 is
sorting "A. Patel" under P.

In SKY 7 "A. Patel" is sorted under A, so one has to ignore "A. " to
sort under P.

Jochen

[Deborah Patton]

Sky does this because the letter 'a' is on the Ignored List of words. Preferences>Data Entry>Ignored Words
Two options -- the repeated hidden letter OR removing the letter 'a' from the Ignored List -- but then you need to remember you did that.
Deborah

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[Jochen Fassbender]

Yes, "a" is on the ignored list but this doesn't explain why it is
sorted under A in SKY 7. Anyway, the original question was about SKY 8.

Jochen

[AElfwine Mischler]

Thank you both.

Yes, I figured it was about the ignore list, but I thought the period after the A would signal that it is not an article and shouldn’t be ignored. Computers are not always as smart as we think.

As an aside, I was listening to a newspaper article read by an AI-generated voice. The article was about ice core samples taken in Greenland. Twice there was a sentence that ended with the word sun, and both times the voice read “sun.” as “Sunday”. I had to stop what I was doing to see the print, it was so jarring to me. 😄

Ælfwine Mischler
Personal email: aelfwine...@gmail.com
Business email: aelf...@MischlerEditorial.com
www.MischlerEditorial.com
American Society for Indexing (ASI)

> On Jan 10, 2026, at 1:02 PM, Deborah Patton <ma...@pattonindexing.com> wrote:
>
> Sky does this because the letter 'a' is on the Ignored List of words. Preferences>Data Entry>Ignored Words