Copiers provide several productivity enhancing features. One of these features is the ability to sort or group copies. Both features are useful and, once the differences are understood, can add to the efficiency of an office's document flow.

Equipment

For a copier to sort or group, it must either be a digital copier or have a finishing unit attached. If your copier is an analog copier with no finisher or sorting equipment attached, it cannot group or sort.

The Differences

As an example, if you have a 3-page document and need to make 3 sets, sorting will produce the copies in a "1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3" manner. The sets can then be stapled and distributed. The same 3-page document copied three times using the group feature will produce copies in a "1-1-1, 2-2-2, 3-3-3" format.

Uses

Sorting is used most often when you want to hand out a complete document in the correct order. Grouping often is used when delivering a presentation and you want to hand out 1 page of the presentation at a time.