Which words are ignored?
A leading The, A or An is skipped, along with the French and Italian articles Le, La, L’ and Il. Only the first word is checked, so “Of Mice and Men” still sorts under O. The titles themselves are never changed.
Numbers in titles
Titles that start with numbers sort by their value, so 2 Fast 2 Furious comes before 10 Things I Hate About You. They all go before titles that start with letters.
Tidy up the capitalization too
Title Case capitalizes each important word and leaves short words like “of”, “the” and “and” in lower case: the lord of the rings becomes The Lord of the Rings. For more options see Change case.
A bookshelf
The Hobbit A Tale of Two Cities Moby Dick An American Tragedy 1984 The Great Gatsby Le Petit Prince 2001: A Space Odyssey
1984 2001: A Space Odyssey An American Tragedy The Great Gatsby The Hobbit Moby Dick Le Petit Prince A Tale of Two Cities
Questions
Why ignore “The”?
It’s the standard filing rule used by libraries, bookshops and music collections. Otherwise half of any collection ends up under T.
Can I alphabetize titles with the article moved to the end, like “Hobbit, The”?
Those already sort correctly with the normal Alphabetize tool.