JMP Tutorial:
Forcing Categorical Data to Display in a Specific Order

Click the link below and save the following JMP file to your Desktop:

• Marital Status vs. Job Grade

Now go to your Desktop and double click on the JMP file you just downloaded.
This action will start JMP and display the content of this file:

Notice that the variable "Marital Status" and "Job Grade" are categorical.
(You can see this from the red bars next to the columns names.)

Many times you want to control the order that the categories are displayed (rather than just live with alpha-numeric order).  Prior to running any analysis, double click on the top of the Marital Status column.  Click on the down arrow next to Column Properties and select Value Ordering. 
You should see:

Notice the names within the Value Ordering box (Divorce, Married, Single) are in alphabetical order.  Click on a name and then click Move Up or Move Down until you have them in the order you want them presented.  For example:

Click OK.

Go to the Analyze menu and select Fit Y by X:

Click the Job Grade column, then click Y, Response.
Click the Marital Status column, then click X, Factor.
Click the Frequency column, then click Freq.
You should now see:

Click OK. Scroll to the following output:

Notice the names from the Marital Status column appear in the order we specified.