cut&paste cell contents AND formatting

[cglenn]

I have a table where certain cells are background shaded one of two colors. When I cut and paste a cell from one part of the table to another (an empty cell), the words are pasted, but the shaded background is left behind.

Can this be done? This is an ever-changing table; names will frequently be cut and pasted elsewhere.



*Alternate Option: I would expect the formatting to follow the cell in a SORT, but I don't know this. This is a three column table with about 25 lines, with people names in each cell. When I add/drop names, if I use the alphabetical RESORT option, it resorts across rows. I want this to resort by column, that is, the last name in column 1 is followed by the next alphabetical name in the first row of column 2. Is there a way to alphabetically sort in this manner? I tried newspaper columns but then there was lots I could not do (that tables can do).