Problem sorting names alphabetically?

[mikehende]

Hello, I am new to excel and can use anyone's help please? I am entering info for items I have for sale in a spreadsheet, when finished I realized that I now have some items of the same name which I should have entered back to back but because of the way I took the items one by one out of the box at random, I ended up with the names scattered so I would now like to alphabetize the names of the products. I googled for this and came up with a tutorial which says:



"If I could post a pic that would help. There is a little button
that has an A on top of a Z, with an arrow pointing down.
Select the data you want to alphabetize, then click the button, but be careful with subsequent colums, sometimes if you don't pick your selection correctly, it won't move that data too."

This I did but it doesn't work, I beleive the the reason for that is I also have quantities for each product also entered so I am seeing the items being arranged more by the quantity [1,2,3 e.t.c or 3,2,1] rather than showing alphabetized, what can I do here please?

[mikehende]

If what I want cannot be done then can I drag or move an entire column up or down into any position but WITHOUT replacing or deleting the contents of the intended column? T o be more precise, if I wish to move column 20 into the column 1 position, I don't want to lose the contents of column 1, this is the only way I am seeing to have every column in alphabetical order.

[Pecoflyer]

Hi and welcome

Maybe post a sample sheet with your data

[mikehende]

Hello, I tried that when initially posting but the "Manage attachments" is not working so i cannot upload, can I impose on you to ask if I can send my spreadsheet via email to you or os there some other way for you to view it online? Thanks.

[Pecoflyer]

Strange that you can't post it. Is it too large? You can also post a zipped file

[mikehende]

Oh, sorry, yesterday the Manage Attachments function itself was not working, it's working now so please see attachment, as you will notice, the names in the first rows are not alphabetically sorted and this is what I am seeking, thanks.

[mikehende]

I should have done this before, here's a screenshot of my spreadsheet, I think I have mixed up column from Row? Anyway, you can see that the first cells on the left, the words are not in alpha order so what I wish to do is move the rows into alpha order so no info in each row is deleted, thanks.

[Pecoflyer]

Using 2003 I selected the entire range then Data - Sort - Check " No Header row" - Select how to sort - OK

[mikehende]

Upon clicking on Data-Sort, I am not seeing an option for "No header row"?

[Pecoflyer]

As I said, I was using 2003.
You have the equivalent ( of "my columns have headers") in the upper right corner.
Do not check is and sort using the dropdown boxes as required

[mikehende]

It works! Thank you very much. For future reference, is there a way to add new entries where they belong in alpha order or would it be easier to add the new entries at the bottom of the list and then use this method?

[Pecoflyer]

I think this method would be faster.
If you use sort conditions on various columns,we could think of using a table tool and recording a macro associated to a button

[mikehende]

ok, thanks!