How to sort Posts manually by different date in WordPress?

Question

I have a wordpress category archive for posts in the "press" category. Each category post is currently sorted by the WordPress publish date. Right now each post also has a " Press Date " field which lets the user post a date in a month year format like "May 2012"

I would like to sort the posts based on this Press Date instead. Here is my current code:

<?php query_posts('showposts=10000&cat=3'); if ( have_posts() ) : ?>
    <?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
        <? $count = $count + 1; $clear = $count % 6; ?>
        <a <? post_class("press-block"); ?> href="<? echo get('link');?>" target="_blank">
            <? echo get_image ('press_image')  ?>
            <span class="press-info">
                <? the_title(); ?>
                <span><? echo get('publication_title'); ?></span>
                <span><? echo get('press_date');?></span>
            </span>
        </a>
    <?php endwhile;  ?>

<?php else : ?>
    No Posts Found
<?php endif; wp_reset_query(); ?>

Answer 1

To use custom fields/meta values to order the query_posts result you can use

query_posts('showposts=10000&cat=3&orderby=meta_value&meta_key=press_date'); // name of 'Press Date' field

For more see Order & Orderby Parameters .