Dear Coliin Worked like a charm. Many, many thanks - I might even be able to finish my tax in time. Comment: You have to put in the full text of the column being used to sort on, it doesn't seem to like using only the first letter or word, but that's ok as long as it's not too long, though it gets a bit tedious when there are many diffferent texts to deal with. Now if only one could add several text choices into one column - e.g. IF either "yellow" or "blue" then green column acquires the value of the associated cell - but one can just add the columns afterwards, so it's no great hardship. Saved me having to resurrect my rusty BASIC - many thanks again Best wishes, andrew