BS: Excell spreadsheet question

Subject: BS: Excell spreadsheet question
From: Deckman
Date: 18 May 14 - 10:45 AM

I am creating a spreadsheet to organize the songs in my repitore. Using the Windows Excell spreadsheet format, I've made five columns: A through F. Column "A" will be the song title. I've entered about 150 titles randomly. Here's my question: How can I organize the songs in column "A" alphabetically?

Thank you for your help. bob(deckman)nelson

Subject: RE: BS: Excell spreadsheet question
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 18 May 14 - 11:04 AM

Choose the 'Data' tab from the top bar. Then 'Sort' you should get A-Z Z-A (and a custom option)

Subject: RE: BS: Excell spreadsheet question
From: Jeri
Date: 18 May 14 - 11:11 AM

Highlight the parts of the spreadsheet with data in them first, or you'll only sort the column. Put another way, if there's data in the row, it won't follow what's in the column when it moves, unless it's all highlighted.

Subject: RE: BS: Excell spreadsheet question
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 18 May 14 - 11:14 AM

I muffed that a bit, but it's 'Data' then 'Sort', then a pop up box in which you choose which 'Column' (select 'A'), what to 'Sort on' (select 'Values') and how to 'Order' (select 'A-Z')

Subject: RE: BS: Excell spreadsheet question
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 18 May 14 - 11:15 AM

Yeah highlight it all too ;-P

Subject: RE: BS: Excell spreadsheet question
From: Deckman
Date: 18 May 14 - 11:28 AM

WOW ... MUDCAT strikes again. I had the perfect answer in 20 minutes. Thanks to both of you for helping me. This will be very useful as I know my list will be well over 1,000 in number. bob(deckman)nelson

Subject: RE: BS: Excell spreadsheet question
From: Musket
Date: 18 May 14 - 11:32 AM

Your list can up to 16,384 per sheet. Or 16,383 plus a list header to be correct.

Subject: RE: BS: Excell spreadsheet question
From: GUEST
Date: 18 May 14 - 11:50 AM

If you want to get really flash, don't bother sorting the data table at all, but use it as the foundation of a Pivot Table. Just make certain Row 1 has the column headers, highlight the entire columns by using the top line above it, and drag the fields into place - you can still drag them around later anyway. You probably want one as a count field just to kid Excel you're doing something, but the rest will tell you, for example, who sings a particular song.

Subject: RE: BS: Excell spreadsheet question
From: Nick
Date: 18 May 14 - 12:02 PM

It currently has 1048576 rows by 16384 columns - more likely to use the rows for songs?

Subject: RE: BS: Excell spreadsheet question
From: Musket
Date: 18 May 14 - 12:08 PM

My mistake. It used to have 16384 rows and I use 16 bit compatibility for OLE with an old AutoCad....

Still, lots of songs.

Subject: RE: BS: Excell spreadsheet question
From: mg
Date: 18 May 14 - 01:34 PM

I do not trust the sort function in excel so i always make a copy and sort from the copy. I also highlight every ten rows or so woth a color to make sure the whole row sorted correctly.

Subject: RE: BS: Excell spreadsheet question
From: Deckman
Date: 18 May 14 - 01:44 PM

Thanks Mary .... bob

Subject: RE: BS: Excell spreadsheet question
From: Mr Red
Date: 18 May 14 - 05:32 PM

if you sort and there are header rows within the selected block, make sure the "sort dialog" knows about those headers. Micro$oft thinks for itself, don't trust it blindly. I usually select columns and tick yes to header row. It is easier unless I have multiple specific areas of interest in the same columns.

I would advise setting the columns to specific format - names as text, numbers as numbers, rather than leaving it "general".

Another anomaly that may have been sorted by Micro$oft with a nag screen asking for guidance is: any numbers in the text will take precedence eg "123 Child" comes way above "Child 123" whereas "Child 123" goes after "Child 120" which may sound obvious but beware numbers in text.

Subject: RE: BS: Excell spreadsheet question
From: MartinRyan
Date: 19 May 14 - 05:32 AM

Always worth testing out the basics on a sample of your data before committing to large scale data entry/import. It's easier to see what's happening AND it can save you a lot of sticking plaster!

Regards

Subject: RE: BS: Excell spreadsheet question
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 May 14 - 09:38 AM

I always Save my table before sorting it - & don't Save or Save As if I don't need to keep the new version.

I've been using small spreadsheets for years but only learnt how to Sort a few months ago, & learnt how to Wrap Text in a column just a few days back!

sandra (expert - NOT)

Subject: RE: BS: Excell spreadsheet question
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 19 May 14 - 11:03 AM

if you put 123 Child in cell A1 you can reverse the order with this formula:

=RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-SEARCH(" ",A1))&" "&LEFT(A1,SEARCH(" ",A1)-1)

Subject: RE: BS: Excell spreadsheet question
From: Scabby Douglas
Date: 20 May 14 - 06:48 AM

Apart from sorting data, as described by several people above, you may also want to use the Autofilter function.
Assuming the first row of your table has column names..
* Click on a single cell inside your table.
* From the Data menu, select "Filter"
* Alongside each column you can click a down-pointing triangle button
If for example one column is "Year Recorded" - you can include or exclude years as required.
You can apply multiple filters on different columns. Filter by Year, and SongTitle, by example.
To view all data again, select an applied filter and check "Select All" in the dropdown.
To return your table to the way it was before you filtered, unclick the "Filter" option.

Filtering does not move your data around in the way that sorting does, although watch out that you can also choose "Sort" in some of the Filter menu options.


Cheers


STeven