Sort dictionary entries in alphabetical order

[jrutkowski]

NVDA does not automatically sort speech dictionary entries alphabetically.

[pvagner]

I think alphabetical sorting might break the rules. In case of regular expression we might perhaps add some manual sorting but I don't think alphabetical sorting is a good idea. Of course I am open to discussion.

[jteh]

The order of rules can affect the result, as they are applied in the order they are found. However, relying on this assumption can be problematic, as there is no way to move entries around in the dictionary dialog and dictionaries are also loaded in a specific order.

This said, sorting also presents other challenges. Do you want it sorted by comment? If so, whenever the comment is changed, the list has to be re-sorted and thus your position in the list will change. Also, while sorting by comment is the most logical, does this really make sense?

Note that list views include the ability to sort by particular columns, although this is tricky to do with NVDA under XP. I wonder whether this would be enough? Can we even use this functionality or does it reorder the list items?

[mdcurran]

I am marking this as won't fix for now. NVDA's dictionary system is much different to other screen readers. Ordering for us is extremely important. If entries were ordered by comment, then its possible that a user may get confused because an entry above may override a rule below it.