I am using Excel 2000 for a one name study project. Currently there are 3100 rows and 22 cols. Apart from one column all others sort in order. The column that will not sort correctly is the one with the forenames in it. Currently I get, for example: John John John John Albert John Frederick John George John William John John Jonathan I have formatted all cells to Text Justified the text to the left but still it will not sort in strict alpha order. The same file on other PCs using Excel 2003 and Open Office displays the same problem, thus it is my file that is the issue. Some of the data was imported from screen captured data, so I wonder if the spreadsheet has picked up some hidden coding that gives rise to the issue. Ideas, anyone ? Thanks Keith

Try creating a new column and copy and pasting into the new column just using "values" regards Bill ----- Original Message ----- From: "Himself" <himself@himself.com> Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.computing To: <gencmp@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, November 23, 2007 8:45 AM Subject: Excel problem >I am using Excel 2000 for a one name study project. > > Currently there are 3100 rows and 22 cols. > > Apart from one column all others sort in order. > > The column that will not sort correctly is the one with the forenames in > it. > > Currently I get, for example: > > John > John > John > John Albert > John Frederick > John George > John William > John > John > Jonathan > > > I have formatted all cells to Text > Justified the text to the left > > but still it will not sort in strict alpha order. > > The same file on other PCs using Excel 2003 and Open Office displays the > same problem, thus it is my file that is the issue. > > Some of the data was imported from screen captured data, so I wonder if > the spreadsheet has picked up some hidden coding that gives rise to the > issue. > > Ideas, anyone ? > > Thanks > > Keith > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > GENCMP-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message

"Himself" <himself@himself.com> wrote in message news:fi6415$6ja$1@lust.ihug.co.nz... >I am using Excel 2000 for a one name study project. > > Currently there are 3100 rows and 22 cols. > > Apart from one column all others sort in order. > > The column that will not sort correctly is the one with the forenames in > it. > > Currently I get, for example: > > John > John > John > John Albert > John Frederick > John George > John William > John > John > Jonathan > It looks as though it's only sorting on the first word. I had this trouble with Word Perfect last week, then found that the default setting is 'first word only' and you have to specifically tell it if you want it to use the second (and later) one as well. Have a hunt through the sort setup area and see if there's somewhere to redefine the sort. Lesley Robertson