I presume you mean sort a column into alpha order.
Do you want the other columns on the same row to travel with the sort or
stay in place. Normally you want everything to stay together so
you would select all cells before invoking the sort.

If you want to restrict you sort to one column only then you would select
the one column only before invoking the sort.

More information on sorting in
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/sorting.htm

and on these pages (these are index pages)
http://www.contextures.com/tiptech.html an index page
http://www.datapigtechnologies.com/ExcelMain.htm flash video tutorials


---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"Marian" wrote in message ...

I appreciate the response!

I still don't understand how to sort a column into alpha order. Two of the
links provided won't open!

I need the "steps" to do it.

Thanks,

Marian



"David McRitchie" wrote:

I presume you mean sort a column into alpha order.
Do you want the other columns on the same row to travel with the sort or
stay in place. Normally you want everything to stay together so
you would select all cells before invoking the sort.

If you want to restrict you sort to one column only then you would select
the one column only before invoking the sort.

More information on sorting in
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/sorting.htm

and on these pages (these are index pages)
http://www.contextures.com/tiptech.html an index page
http://www.datapigtechnologies.com/ExcelMain.htm flash video tutorials


---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"Marian" wrote in message ...

Hi Marian,
Basically the question I have for you is what does it do instead of work.

All three open for me, except for my own, I pasted the links from my
browser. You don't say which one you did open, and you did not
answer if the data on the rest of the row is supposed to move when
you sort. Did anything happen when you tried something. You don't
say what the problem actually is. Why do you use the word format,
I certainly don't think you are referring to cell format...

Unless you've played with the options, Excel will treat uppercase letters
and lowercase letters the same and will rearrange the rows within a column.

If you want to rearrange the columns within a row you would need to
change the sort options when you invoke the sort.

There is not really much of a difference between alpha sorting and
numeric sort unless you mix them in the same column and the sorting
is described on my page. Excel's goal is to sort numbers before letters
so if the cell looks like a number it will be treated as a number and sort
before cells with any nondigit characters. Of those it considers text and it
is not by the formatting but by the character content it will sort digits above
letters proceeding left to right through the cell content.

If you are trying to sort numbers as text then that is a problem and you would
probably have to prefix the value with another character and sort on
that column referred to as helper column. F1: ="X" & A1 .

Without you being more specific, I'm not going to describe each/any step in
invoking a sort because that is covered much better on the web pages.
So it seems to me you are probably asking something other than how I
interpret your question. Everything except possibly using a helper
column is described on my sorting.htm page. (actually that is covered (#mixed)
and the data must have been entered as text not as a number).

If you are having a lot of problems opening a site then perhaps you
are on a network and your choice of sites is restricted. If you are
posting from home (and this is a weekend) then possibly your ISP's DNS server
is down or messed up or your own table in your computer is messed up and it
would take a reboot to fix. If bringing your browser
down and up does not work, and rebooting does not work, Then you
might take a look at
://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/dns.htm
If you are on verizon or comcast then that could very well be the problem
and why verizon does not use their own tables but uses the modem
manufacturer's tables (Westell) by default is beyond me. Comcast is
notorious for such problems and rolling blackouts. I usually make
sure I can connect to ibm.com to start with (unless I had already connected
to them on same session; otherwise, a lettered TV station that I don't
necessarily have a bookmark for)..

Okay here are some quick steps assuming you want the rest of the
data on the row to stay together. Use Ctrl+A to select all cells.
But if you are on Excel 2003 don't use Ctrl+A instead use the gray button
at the intersection of the row headers and column headers (it unfortunately
will make A1 as the active cell). Then use Data. Sort

Here is a short description of sorting.
If you want to sort on Column A then you would select the name label
that column A has, if you don't have a label then you will see "Column A"
then choose for that column if you want ascending or descending. Near
the lower left or bottom you will see "my data has header" you would
check the option if the first row of your selection is NOT to be moved
during the sort because it is a header.

You could use the sort buttons, but if you don't understand what you
are doing you are more likely to destroy the integrity of your data, so
again I suggest you read my page.
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/sorting.htm

If you have an empty row or an empty column intervening in your data
and you try to sort without first selecting all cells then you are headed
to loss of integrity of your data -- all of this is covered on my page.which
would table about 15 pages to print as the coverage is much better than
you are likely to find in a single newsgroup response unless you have a very
specific question (that is not covered)..
---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"Marian" wrote in message ...
I appreciate the response!

I still don't understand how to sort a column into alpha order. Two of the
links provided won't open!

I need the "steps" to do it.

Thanks,

Marian



"David McRitchie" wrote:

I presume you mean sort a column into alpha order.
Do you want the other columns on the same row to travel with the sort or
stay in place. Normally you want everything to stay together so
you would select all cells before invoking the sort.

If you want to restrict you sort to one column only then you would select
the one column only before invoking the sort.

More information on sorting in
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/sorting.htm

and on these pages (these are index pages)
http://www.contextures.com/tiptech.html an index page
http://www.datapigtechnologies.com/ExcelMain.htm flash video tutorials


---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"Marian" wrote in message ...