Why does the sort area change?

I have a simple spreadsheet without formulas. Just names, dates, etc. My sheet has a header row.

When I perform the very first sort of my worksheet, Excel highlights all the columns and rows under the header rows automatically. I will then click on OK and the sort proceeds normally. However, if I later run the same sort again, Excel automatically adds one of the header rows to the sort selection and continues to do this from that point on with every subsequent sort. If I close and re-open the file the scenario repeats itself; kind of like a reset.

It does this whether or not I've modified the worksheet or not. I can open the file, perform a sort and immediately run the same sort and the above occurs.

Is this just a quirk of Excel 2010 or.....? It's not a big deal but it is annoying to have to re-define or manually choose the sort area every time.

Sort procedure I use:

1. Choose any cell in worksheet.
2. Menu --> DATA --> Sort (button) --> Sort box appears --> click OK

I've attached a screen shot if this helps.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by gmr4evr1

In the first one it has sort by completion, the second one has sort by per schedule. Not sure if this is the issue, but worth a shot...if you haven't already tried it. Have you tried freezing the header row?

Thanks for the reply.

The issue is Excel automatically chooses "sort by completion" the first time and then changes it to "sort by per schedule" for each subsequent sort. Why does Excel feel the need to change the "sort by" definition on its own?

The header rows are frozen. It also does this with the header rows unfrozen.

Just to close the loop on this.

This issue appears to have something to do with having two header rows. I can replicate the issue 100% by just creating a worksheet with two header rows. Doesn't matter if the top two rows are frozen or how cells are formatted, etc. Saving and reopening will "reset" the issue very time as well.

Attached is a test file which exhibits identical behavior as my original file in question.

I wouldn't call this issue "solved" as I really don't know what's causing this.

Originally Posted by shg

Change it to just have one header row. 'Header row' has no plural in Excel.

Why didn't I think of that?