The sorter

A look into a container lists everything in one long line. The sorter shows it by kind instead:

In the mahogany box you see a bright gold ingot, some silver coins, a smooth
amber wand, a piece of brown jade, a steel lockpick, a pinch of electrum dust
and a tar black tourmaline.

becomes

In the mahogany box:
valuable (1): a bright gold ingot
other (1): some silver coins
wand (1): a smooth amber wand
gem (3): a pinch of electrum dust, a piece of brown jade, a tar black tourmaline
lockpick (1): a steel lockpick

Every item keeps its link, so a click or a right-click on it works as it did in the long line. Given a width, each kind’s label sits on a line of its own and its items under it in columns that fit.

What is sorted

A look that starts In the, On the or Peering into and lists its items whole: the container, you see, the items with , and and between, and a full stop. Anything of another shape is shown as it came – the herb kit’s look goes on past its list to say how many doses each herb holds, and sorting it would lose them. What the game says after an item’s name stays with it: a leather journal embossed with a peacock feather.

• The kind is every type the item’s noun and name belong to, joined by commas, or other.
• Names are each item whole, as the game’s inventory lines say it: its article, its name, and what follows; with long names off, its name alone. An item holding something says so in brackets, a glass vial (some red liquid); a crystalline flask is named by what it holds.
• Order: kinds as first seen; within one, items by the last word of the name; the same item twice is one, with its count.

Turning it on

The choice is this character’s, kept in its settings file and on its General page.