What's the best way to allow user to 'sort' a complex dropdown?

Question

This is quite similar to this question, but not quite the same.

I have a widget--to be called Widget 1--in a desktop application that is a combobox/dropdown, which is a field that allows you to type in it, but also has a button that drops a dropdown that presents choices. The user therefore can either type right into the combobox, or choose on of the choices. (I am hoping to add auto-completion for typing as well).

I've recently thought that it would enhance the utility of the application if the choices could be organized in about 5 or so different ways, depending on the use case of the user. Those could be alphabetical, or in a tree structure by category, or in other ways (below I just show some example adjectives, like "alphabetical", "chronological", etc).

For this reason, I want to have a way for the user to choose the way in which Widget 1's dropdown contents are organized.

What is the best way to do this?

For now, I have a second widget--Widget 2--to the right of Widget 1. Widget 2 is a standard choice widget that allows the user to choose the way Widget 1's dropdown contents are organized.

And both of these are immediately above another section of the GUI, a list control.

See these two images to quickly get the idea:

Although this layout has some advantages (the user can immediately see how s/he has the organization of the choices, and the dropdown and its text is clear as to what it does, I think), it looks, to me, really clunky and ugly, and possibly misleading, in the context of the whole GUI. (For the sake of brevity, I'll leave out why). I also think that although the user's being able to select the way in which Widget 1's dropdown contents are displayed is a good thing for the application, it's usually not the main focus of use, and should not take up much visual real estate--certainly not as much as Widget 1 itself.

So, then: What other ways might be better? I was thinking of the following options:

• A small button to the right of Widget 1. User clicks it, and it presents a popup menu from which the user can choose the way Widget 1's dropdown contents are organized.
• Right clicking on Widget 1 presents that popup menu.
• That menu is in the application's menu bar, under a menu header something like "Values display" (get a better term!).
• ????

Answer 1

Your screenshot makes it very clear that widget2 controls the grid that's located under it - both because the widget is above the grid and because it's following widget 1 (as opposed to preceding it). I had to read the question twice before I understood that it actually controls widget 1. So I'd argue that this is not a good solution.

It would be easier for your users to develop the right mental model if widget 2 was inside widget 1, for instance something like this:

^{download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups}