Support customizable pick list ordering

[grantfitzsimmons]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Administrators and collection managers consistently report that the default chronological (ID-based) sorting of pick lists and dropdown fields creates friction during data entry.

Describe the solution you’d like
Provide a native UI control (ideally a dropdown) within the Pick List editor that allows administrators to choose a sort order for any pick list:

• Chronological (creation order)
• Alphabetical (by title)
• Custom (by the ordinal field)

This needs to be respected in all places (both comboboxes and in the WorkBench). In my view, the default should be Alphabetical.

Describe alternatives you’ve considered

• High-risk database modifications (ID seeding or index manipulation) to reorder items
• Deleting and re-entering every pick list item in the desired sequence

Reported By
Just a few use cases and historical requests illustrating the need for built-in UI sorting controls:

• Corinna P (CSIRO, March 2022) highlighted operational friction caused by default sort logic during standard workflows.
• Zsuzsanna Papp (Danish Natural History Museums, September 2022) had to re-enter pick list items so they would appear alphabetically on data entry forms.
• Matthew Cruz (University of Michigan, September 2023) resorted to database index seeding to force alphabetical ordering of a large relational list.
• Paul Blom (College of Idaho, May 2024) was forced to delete and re-enter every item to achieve alphabetical order and advocated strongly for a native feature.
• Marion Depraetere (Museum für Naturkunde, April 2026) would need to delete and re-enter every item to achieve alphabetical order, see this post on the Speciforum