Categories entered are automatically sorting.

Both actually.

Order Entered

After Save

Result in HTML

This is my category template

<perch:before><ul></perch:before>
<li style="margin-left: <perch:category id="catDepth" type="hidden" />0px;">
    <h4><perch:category id="catTitle" type="smarttext" label="Title" required="true" /></h4>
    <perch:category id="catSlug" type="slug" for="catTitle" suppress="true" />
    <perch:category id="desc" type="textarea" label="Description" editor="markitup" markdown="true" size="s" />
</li>
<perch:after></ul></perch:after>

And here is my content template

    <perch:categories id="wheelCategories" label="Wheel Pain Point Reference" set="wheel-categories" required="false">
      <perch:before>
      <h3>Wheel Pain Point Reference</h3>
      <ul>
      </perch:before>
      <li><a href="/category/<perch:category id="catPath" />"><perch:category id="catTitle" /><br>||<perch:category id="desc" /></a></li>
      <perch:after>
      </ul>
      </perch:after>
    </perch:categories>

OK. I'll have to think of another way of customizing their order. If nested repeaters was an option, that would work - I guess I'll have to think of another way of structuring my content.

It appears Perch stores the correct order on save. But when it refreshes the control panel page - that's when the sorting happens in the UI. - then when a subsequent save occurs, it uses the sorted arrangement.

It seems that it would be useful to be able to sort the categories and have that sorting stay. Otherwise, the ability to drag the categories into different positions serves no purpose.

I did a workaround using blocks, and then use a repeat region for the category entry.

Sometimes I feel like a complete idiot. Somehow the concept of <perch:related> missed my radar. I guess that's how I learn, by doing things wrong 5 times.