Position Order for Sub-categories

[edsbaxxo]

I have 48 subcategories under my main category "School List".  In 1.48 these were listed in A to Z order.  In 1.6 they are in a random order.  This effects my top horizontal menu display.  It seems that the only way to fix this is to drag each of the 48 subcategories to their proper position in the Product/Category section of the backoffice.  Because each of these subcategories has a large description, moving them in this way takes about five minutes for each item.  

Is there a way to just change the position number directly?  I know the position number each subcat should have.