diff --git a/docs/settings.rst b/docs/settings.rst
index 55740296..0c804f1c 100644
--- a/docs/settings.rst
+++ b/docs/settings.rst
@@ -260,16 +260,19 @@ posts for the month at ``posts/2011/Aug/index.html``.
     arrive at an appropriate archive of posts, without having to specify
     a page name.
 
-======================================================  ========================================================
+======================================================  ==============================================================
 Setting name (followed by default value, if any)        What does it do?
-======================================================  ========================================================
+======================================================  ==============================================================
 ``ARTICLE_URL = '{slug}.html'``                         The URL to refer to an article.
 ``ARTICLE_SAVE_AS = '{slug}.html'``                     The place where we will save an article.
-``ARTICLE_ORDER_BY = 'slug'``                           The metadata attribute used to sort articles. By default
-                                                        the articles_page.object_list template variable is 
-                                                        ordered by slug. If you modify this, make sure all 
-                                                        articles contain the attribute you specify. You can
-                                                        also specify a sorting function.
+``ARTICLE_ORDER_BY = 'slug'``                           The metadata attribute used to sort articles. By default,
+                                                        the ``articles_page.object_list`` template variable is
+                                                        ordered by slug. If you modify this, make sure all
+                                                        articles contain the attribute you specify. You can also
+                                                        specify a "sorting" function of one argument that is used
+                                                        to extract a comparison key from each article. For example,
+                                                        sorting by title without using the built-in functionality
+                                                        would use the function ``operator.attrgetter('title')``.
 ``ARTICLE_LANG_URL = '{slug}-{lang}.html'``             The URL to refer to an article which doesn't use the
                                                         default language.
 ``ARTICLE_LANG_SAVE_AS = '{slug}-{lang}.html'``         The place where we will save an article which
@@ -285,13 +288,16 @@ Setting name (followed by default value, if any)        What does it do?
                                                         the same as PAGE_URL or you need to use a rewrite in
                                                         your server config.
 
-``PAGE_ORDER_BY = 'filename'``                          The metadata attribute used to sort pages. By default
-                                                        the PAGES template variable is ordered by filename
-                                                        (path not included). Note that the option 'filename' 
-                                                        is a special option supported in the source code. If 
-                                                        you modify this settings, make sure all pages contain 
-                                                        the attribute you specify. You can also specify a 
-                                                        sorting function.
+``PAGE_ORDER_BY = 'basename'``                          The metadata attribute used to sort pages. By default
+                                                        the ``PAGES`` template variable is ordered by basename
+                                                        (i.e., path not included). Note that the option ``'basename'``
+                                                        is a special option supported in the source code. If
+                                                        you modify this setting, make sure all pages contain
+                                                        the attribute you specify. You can also specify a "sorting"
+                                                        function of one argument that is used to extract a comparison
+                                                        key from each page. For example, the basename function looks
+                                                        similar to
+                                                        ``lambda x: os.path.basename(getattr(x, 'source_path', ''))``.
 ``PAGE_LANG_URL = 'pages/{slug}-{lang}.html'``          The URL we will use to link to a page which doesn't
                                                         use the default language.
 ``PAGE_LANG_SAVE_AS = 'pages/{slug}-{lang}.html'``      The location we will save the page which doesn't
@@ -309,7 +315,7 @@ Setting name (followed by default value, if any)        What does it do?
                                                         non-alphanumerics when generating slugs. Specified
                                                         as a list of 2-tuples of ``(from, to)`` which are
                                                         applied in order.
-======================================================  ========================================================
+======================================================  ==============================================================
 
 .. note::
 
diff --git a/pelican/utils.py b/pelican/utils.py
index ecdf5e0d..076c41ea 100644
--- a/pelican/utils.py
+++ b/pelican/utils.py
@@ -465,17 +465,13 @@ def process_translations(content_list, order_by=None):
             a.translations = [x for x in items if x != a]
 
     if order_by:
-        if hasattr(order_by, '__call__'):
+        if callable(order_by):
             try:
                 index.sort(key=order_by)
-            except:
-                if hasattr(order_by, 'func_name'):
-                    logger.error("Error sorting with function %s" % order_by.func_name)
-                else:
-                    logger.error("Error sorting with function %r" % order_by)
-        elif order_by == 'filename':
-            index.sort(key=lambda x:os.path.basename(
-                    x.source_path or ''))
+            except Exception:
+                logger.error('Error sorting with function {}'.format(order_by))
+        elif order_by == 'basename':
+            index.sort(key=lambda x: os.path.basename(x.source_path or ''))
         elif order_by != 'slug':
             index.sort(key=attrgetter(order_by))