How to sort the threaded mailbox view by date?

For one subscribed IMAP folder, I chose a threaded view (because it is a mailing list with many replies). Now I wanted to see the threads with the latest replies on top - but clicking the headers with or without the Shift key pressed does not solve this.

How can I achieve this sorting easily? It must be possible somehow and I even think I had it once...

cthulhux wrote:For one subscribed IMAP folder, I chose a threaded view (because it is a mailing list with many replies). Now I wanted to see the threads with the latest replies on top - but clicking the headers with or without the Shift key pressed does not solve this.

How can I achieve this sorting easily? It must be possible somehow and I even think I had it once...

Left click in the header box of the primary sorting field.  While holding the CTRL key down, Left Click on the secondary sorting field.  Within the soft direction indicators in each field, a small number will appear indicating the sort field number, starting at 1.

Update:

My initial reply did not consider your complete question.   I tried some things and then went to Help | Mailboxes for a more complete discussion of sorting.

Butch

Thank you for your reply. Yet, clicking the Date column header to make it the primary sorting column does not change anything, so I must be missing something here...

cthulhux wrote:Thank you for your reply. Yet, clicking the Date column header to make it the primary sorting column does not change anything, so I must be missing something here...

This has been a learning experience for me.  Here are some things I have found:

• Clicking in a header block such as Who causes the messages to be sorted based on that header.  
  
• The header block will contain a triangle on the right side showing sort direction - Triangle point down - descending order, Z-A.  Triangle point up - ascending order A-Z. Look carefully as the Triangle can be hard to see.
  
• Click in a header block to see what the sort order is for that column. Use Shift+Click to change descending order or CTRL+Click for ascending order.
  
• For multiple column sorts, first set the sort order in each column, then Click to set the Primary sort key and then CTRL+Click for each secondary sort key.
  
• When multiple columns are selected, a triangle symbol in each selected column will contain a number with 1 for the primary key.
  
• An alternative method to select a header block as a sort key is found in Menu | View | Sort By.
  

My experience with multiple key sorts is to:

• First get the sort order correct on each column to be used in the sort,
  
• Select the column for primary sort key with a Click in the header block,
  
• Select the column for secondary sort key with a CTRL+Click in the header block,
  
• Repeat for additional secondary sort key columns.
  

I hope this explanation helps.

Butch

But I only want to have a single key sort ... which does not work. Interestingly, neither does the menu item. The threaded list remains sorted in a weird way.
Does sorting a threaded view by date work for you? Maybe it’s a view problem.

cthulhux wrote:But I only want to have a single key sort ... which does not work. Interestingly, neither does the menu item. The threaded list remains sorted in a weird way.
Does sorting a threaded view by date work for you? Maybe it’s a view problem.

I am not sure what you are calling a "threaded view".   If I select Subject and then CTRL+Click date time, I get a list of messages in the mailbox that are sorted by date/time within subject - subject is primary key and date/time is secondary.  Is that a "threaded view"?

Butch

The "threaded view" is the view with grouped subjects.

Here is a screenshot:
https://i.imgur.com/qZmykBO.png

I have no idea how I can sort these groups by date. Regardless of what I click, it's always... weirdly sorted.

cthulhux wrote:The "threaded view" is the view with grouped subjects.

Here is a screenshot:
https://i.imgur.com/qZmykBO.png

I have no idea how I can sort these groups by date. Regardless of what I click, it's always... weirdly sorted.

Okay, I now know what you are trying to do.   Here is how to group the messages so the latest messages in a group are on top:

• Open the mailbox of interest.
  
• Turn off grouping by going to Menu | View | Group by and select None.
  
• Click in the Date & Time header block and verify the triangle points down.  If triangle points up, Shift+ Click to make the triangle point down placing newest messages on top.
  
• Go to Menu | View | Group by and select Subject which will group the messages by subject, sorted in ascending order with the newest message at the top of each group.
  

The column that is selected for Group by will be sorted in ascending order.  I could not find a way to change that.

It seems to me that Grouping on the Subject with the new message on top is almost the same as primary sort on Subject with secondary sort on Date & Time.

Hope this answers your question.  I apologize for not understanding what Threaded meant.

Butch

I was on my Mac when I asked first, so I could only reproduce the problem from my memory. My fault, really.

What I intend to have are messages which are grouped (“threaded”) by subject, ordered by date so the newest message in a group is shown last, also ordered by date so the newest thread is the last. According to your instructions, that is not possible yet?

Thank you for your patience.

cthulhux wrote:I was on my Mac when I asked first, so I could only reproduce the problem from my memory. My fault, really.

What I intend to have are messages which are grouped (“threaded”) by subject, ordered by date so the newest message in a group is shown last, also ordered by date so the newest thread is the last. According to your instructions, that is not possible yet?

Thank you for your patience.

My instructions provided what you requested in the first post of this topic "I wanted to see the threads with the latest replies on top".  That is the different from what you said above "ordered by date so the newest message in a group is shown last".  

These instructions show how to group messages sorted by Subject and Date & Time within the group, and how to set sort direction:

• Remove grouping by going to Menu | View | Group by and selecting None.
  
• Click in the Date & Time header block to sort messages by Date & Time.
  
• If the triangle points down - newest messages are on top.
  
• If the triangle points up - newest messages are on bottom.
  
• Shift+Click in the header block to make the triangle point down.
  
• Ctrl+Click in the header block to make the triangle point up
  
• Turn on grouping by Subject by going to Menu | View | Group by and selecting Subject.
  
• To change the sort direction, you must start over at top of list.
  

Hope this helps.

Butch

Ah, I see - so the key is to remove the grouping before sorting? Thank you. That helps.