alphabetical list and only if published

Not sure if this is “beyond codex”, but can’t find a codex forum section.

Hello all,

I’m a designer working with someone who is making a community blog using wordpress. I am normally just a psd to css kind of guy and have found the theme changing experience to be as expected, getting much more comfortable with it.

Now the client wants me to venture into unknown territory, manipulation of site content and programming.

He now wants me to make a list of links within a box. Not complicated at all if it was just static links. No, he wants this list of links to appear alphabetically AND only appear if the post which the link is referring to HAS BEEN PUBLISHED.

I don’t need anyone to handfeed me each step (unless they’re so inclined) but if you all could point me to the best resource to help solve this answer on my own, much appreciated.

For instance, is this kind of a thing completely PHP related or are there modules I can install to take over this function?

Thanks in advance!
John