I am trying to sort on paragraph numbers with no luck. I have tried various data types and values, but again, no luck. I am trying to sort numbers (text) such as 4 4.1 4.1.3 and 4.5.10.1 but no matter how I do it, 4.2 always follows 4.1 even if there is a 4.1.1 ANy ideas?

According to Excel, you are mixing numbers and text, then asking for a sort. Excel's response is to sort the numbers first, then the text values after. To get around this, you must "tell" Excel the numbers are meant to to be text. This can be done two ways:

- first way (and most reliable), place a single apostrophe ' in front of the number e.g. '4.2 Excel will treat this as text (the apostrophe will not display after you have put it in place).

- second, format the cells as text "before" you enter any data in them. It won't work if you format the cells after the data is already there.

Once you have "converted" your numbers to text and ask for a sort, Excel should pop up a "Sort Warning". If you choose "Sort numbers and numbers stored as text separately", you should get what you asked for.

Cheers,