1. you could create 26 mt:If blocks each asking if EntryTitle starts with a given letter like="ˆ(A|a)", thus permitting only those Entries to pass that start with the given letter.

2. Use mt:EntryIfTagged 26 times. This would require you to tag each Entry first, for example: @a, @b, or @alpha-a, @alpha-b, etc..

3. Create an Entry template with an archive mapping that publishes entries to folders /a, /b, /c etc. based on your input into a custom field on the Edit Entry screen. Then try to create a loop with the mt:Folders tag .... all right. I'll stop here. This leads nowhere.

Hm, what else...

There should be an attribute for the result listing.

Have you tried the Order plugin(as the sort's simple) or Collate? The search system is always a little weird, but assuming that doesn't come into play, Order will make this trivial.

Also a sort attribute is entirely reasonable for search results. File a feature request?

Given that a sort attribute is an entirely reasonable thing for search results, I was hoping that it was already in there somewhere. I'm sure someone has filed this as a feature request years ago, but can do so again. Thanks again!

In the template tags and the Widget: search, it looks like search is limited, but if you read the 3.2 manual section, apparently you can extend the search functionality WELL beyond what is on the basic template. (I had to laugh, because the template that I'm using offers up a "regex" search checkbox option to the user, as if anyone but geeks knew that that was ... chuckle).

It appears there are parameters already built in to limit search to certain field and possibly to sort on more than create date:

<b>Sort By:</b>
<select name="SearchSortBy">
<option value="created_on">Authored On Date</option>
<option value="title">Title</option>
</select><br />
<b>Sort Order:</b>
<select name="ResultDisplay">
<option value="ascend">Ascending</option>
<option value="descend">Descending</option>
</select><br />

Creating a Search Form -- the 3.2 docs page the poster references -- says,

Most of the bells-and-whistles in this form may not be overridden by the reader. Here is an HTML form that exposes those options to the reader:

[...code, including that cited above...]

This form exposes all of the options to the reader for tailoring to their own liking. Optionally, these parameters can be passed to the search script via hidden input tags. A benefit of using this approach is that configured options are set only for the reader and won't alter parameters in the MT configuration file that may be used by the search elsewhere in the site.

From the old docs,

Chapter D: Configuration Directives SearchSortBy

The sort column for the search results. Using created_on will sort the entries by the authored on date; using title will sort the entries by title. This can be used with ResultDisplay to sort in either ascending or descending order.

Default value: created_on

Example:

SearchSortBy title

It sounds doable, if you can change option values.

Bingo, thank you! The following configuration directives worked!

SearchSortBy title
ResultDisplay ascend

You have to include the "ResultDisplay ascend" or the "SearchSortBy title" will not work.

Now http://www.elise.com/recipes/tag/Chicken%20Breasts is in alphabetical order.

The downside of this technique for those who might be interested in it is that it affects all search results on your MT install, not just the specific instance of one search result. In my case, it doesn't matter as I use Google search for almost all other searches on the site, and in the case that I do use mt search, I want the results listed by title.

The upside is that it is the easiest thing in the world to implement. No plugins. No messing with code on templates.

I wonder if it could be restricted for use on just a specific blog and/or tag. Something like

<select name="SearchSortBy">
<mt:IfTagSearch tag="Chicken">
<option value="title">Title</option>
<mt:Else>
<option value="created_on">Authored On Date</option>
</mt:IfTagSearch>

and the same for the sort order. (Not sure about syntax, if you'd need to use an mt:If tag="Chicken" and the same kind of conditional for "Include blogs" or if you can change that part of the form at all.)

I've been a frequent visitor to your recipes, btw. Great cooking blog.

So you can do something like

<mt:searchresults sort_by="title" sort_order="ascend">

In fact, the configuration directives will conflict with, and over-ride, this usage in the template.