Stop heading row being sorted (Excel 2003)

[Timboo]

I am sure in previous version of Excel you could mark the first row as
headings, and they would not then be sorted. (I think there was a tick box
somewhere) How do I do this in 2003, and why is it either not a default, or
logically easy to see how to do it (I asked four IT people in the office how
to and nobody knew, and I'm not too bad with other Office products).

Also before I email the spreadsheet out to a large number of users, (who
will add data) I will turn on tracking changes, but is there anything else I
should do to aid visibility in identifying on the returned sheets what data
has been added - or that might aid merging the returned spreadsheets into a
single sheet?

Thank you, Tim.

[Timboo]

Sorry the orginal post sounded "angry" this was not intended, but after
spending 20 minutes trying to do something you used to be able to do, but
cant any more, does make the blood pressure rise, make getting old seem quite
scary ;-)

Tim

"Timboo" wrote:

> I am sure in previous version of Excel you could mark the first row as
> headings, and they would not then be sorted. (I think there was a tick box
> somewhere) How do I do this in 2003, and why is it either not a default, or
> logically easy to see how to do it (I asked four IT people in the office how
> to and nobody knew, and I'm not too bad with other Office products).
>
> Also before I email the spreadsheet out to a large number of users, (who
> will add data) I will turn on tracking changes, but is there anything else I
> should do to aid visibility in identifying on the returned sheets what data
> has been added - or that might aid merging the returned spreadsheets into a
> single sheet?
>
> Thank you, Tim.

[Tom Ogilvy]

the behavior in Sort is exactly the same.

If you go to Data=>sort, there is a checkbox at the bottom of the dialog
that indicates that there is or isn't a header. Usually Excel is pretty
smart in being able to determine if there is or isn't, but not always. If
you bold your header row and the rest of the data is not bold, then that
usually makes it different enough to figure it out - but when Excel is wrong,
use the dialog and tell it.

As far as telling whether new data has been added or not, I can't say of a
good way beyond comparing what was sent out to what was sent back.

--
Regards,
Tom Ogilvy


"Timboo" wrote:

> Sorry the orginal post sounded "angry" this was not intended, but after
> spending 20 minutes trying to do something you used to be able to do, but
> cant any more, does make the blood pressure rise, make getting old seem quite
> scary ;-)
>
> Tim
>
> "Timboo" wrote:
>
> > I am sure in previous version of Excel you could mark the first row as
> > headings, and they would not then be sorted. (I think there was a tick box
> > somewhere) How do I do this in 2003, and why is it either not a default, or
> > logically easy to see how to do it (I asked four IT people in the office how
> > to and nobody knew, and I'm not too bad with other Office products).
> >
> > Also before I email the spreadsheet out to a large number of users, (who
> > will add data) I will turn on tracking changes, but is there anything else I
> > should do to aid visibility in identifying on the returned sheets what data
> > has been added - or that might aid merging the returned spreadsheets into a
> > single sheet?
> >
> > Thank you, Tim.

[Bob Umlas]

in the Data/Sort dialog, there's an option button for Header row

"Timboo" <Timboo@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4AFAF501-6FD0-4F9B-9E57-6F204BC5D06C@microsoft.com...
> I am sure in previous version of Excel you could mark the first row as
> headings, and they would not then be sorted. (I think there was a tick box
> somewhere) How do I do this in 2003, and why is it either not a default,
or
> logically easy to see how to do it (I asked four IT people in the office
how
> to and nobody knew, and I'm not too bad with other Office products).
>
> Also before I email the spreadsheet out to a large number of users, (who
> will add data) I will turn on tracking changes, but is there anything else
I
> should do to aid visibility in identifying on the returned sheets what
data
> has been added - or that might aid merging the returned spreadsheets into
a
> single sheet?
>
> Thank you, Tim.

[Timboo]

Tom, thank you for the reply,

Firstly I had made the first row bold, text, bigger font, to hint to Excel
that it was a header (just in case) Secondly I also found the tick box under
"my data has header row" and that is ticked, but it still throws the header
row into the sorted data, dispite the tick box being filled. So perhaps I
was on the right tracks, but this sheet may be a bit qwerky, thanks Tim

"Tom Ogilvy" wrote:

> the behavior in Sort is exactly the same.
>
> If you go to Data=>sort, there is a checkbox at the bottom of the dialog
> that indicates that there is or isn't a header. Usually Excel is pretty
> smart in being able to determine if there is or isn't, but not always. If
> you bold your header row and the rest of the data is not bold, then that
> usually makes it different enough to figure it out - but when Excel is wrong,
> use the dialog and tell it.
>
> As far as telling whether new data has been added or not, I can't say of a
> good way beyond comparing what was sent out to what was sent back.
>
> --
> Regards,
> Tom Ogilvy
>
>
> "Timboo" wrote:
>
> > Sorry the orginal post sounded "angry" this was not intended, but after
> > spending 20 minutes trying to do something you used to be able to do, but
> > cant any more, does make the blood pressure rise, make getting old seem quite
> > scary ;-)
> >
> > Tim
> >
> > "Timboo" wrote:
> >
> > > I am sure in previous version of Excel you could mark the first row as
> > > headings, and they would not then be sorted. (I think there was a tick box
> > > somewhere) How do I do this in 2003, and why is it either not a default, or
> > > logically easy to see how to do it (I asked four IT people in the office how
> > > to and nobody knew, and I'm not too bad with other Office products).
> > >
> > > Also before I email the spreadsheet out to a large number of users, (who
> > > will add data) I will turn on tracking changes, but is there anything else I
> > > should do to aid visibility in identifying on the returned sheets what data
> > > has been added - or that might aid merging the returned spreadsheets into a
> > > single sheet?
> > >
> > > Thank you, Tim.