Hi Brandi,

Hiding gridlines has nothing to do with it -- the text is still in a table,
whether you can see the lines or not.

You can sort a table -- in fact, you have more options available if you do
sort a table than if you sorted the same material when it isn't in a table.
Just put the cursor in the table and select Tables > Sort. You can choose
which column to sort on and how you want it sorted.

If you really want the text to be not-in-a-table for other reasons, select
Table > Convert > Table To Text. You'll still be able to sort with Table >
Sort, but some of the options for choosing how to sort will be gone.

A bit of advice: Make a copy of the document before you sort. If you don't
like the results of the sort and you want to start over, it's more reliable
to take a new copy of the original than it is to use Undo.