Background
My wife keeps a database of books she's read. She will typically read several books then "batch" update the database. She does this by using Amazon to create the initial record for each book she's adding then modifying the record (e.g., she modifies the Author field because she wants last name then first name order). She likes to keep the database sorted by Author and then by Title.
When she changes the Author field in a record and clicks to the next field in the record the record jumps to its new sort position, confusing and annoying her (she changes the fields in place, not in the editing window).
Main Request
It would be nice if one could temporarily disable the sorting without having to "mess up" the sorting/sub-sorting behavior. However, even messing up the sorting behavior works inconsistently or not at all. I've tried various workarounds, like setting the sort column to a column with all blank (or all the same) entries. The previous sort is preserved in that case but editing the Author field still causes record movement. Setting the sort to (for example) just the Title column works ... but then the preferred sort isn't displayed ... and has to be reestablished after finishing. A way to indicate that a column should not participate in sorting might be nice ... but see the Additional Requests / Comments below.
Additional Requests / Comments
It would be nice if the kind of sorting a column was set to was visible (e.g., in addition to just ascending/descending, whether the sort is by first or last word in a field) . It would also be nice if the sub-sort behavior settings were visible, i.e., which columns are participating and in what order ... and an explicit way to reset the sub-sort would be useful (or, if it exists, document it).
My wife is a Human Factors professional (i.e., she makes things easier for humans to use, including computer programs). In her profession there's the notion of "affordance", roughly, being able to identify the possible ways an object can be used and how to perform the usage. Hidden and arcanely accessible features are considered "problematical" with respect to that notion.
Regards,
Gary Nunes