Spreadsheet Data Becomes Unsorted

[ACCBRIAN]

Hi there, first time poster here. I was hoping someone could offer some insight into this problem I have.

I have been putting together a database of town owned properties. I have about 190 rows with well over 20 columns. Sometimes I need to sort the data in order to find something. However sometimes after sorting the data and not thinking of anything of it, I will open up the file later that day or the next day and I find that most of, or sections of my data are all jumbled up. I then have to re-enter the data to get it to where it should be. I am using Excel 2003.

Does anyone know what is going on? Can I fix this or only try to avoid it?

Thanks,

Brian

[mewingkitty]

Sometimes I need to sort the data in order to find something

There's quite a few ways to go about looking things up/referencing information. Could you post an example of your workbook? We could likely come up with a good system for you.

[G0liath02]

Hard to know exactly what your problem is without seeing the sheet.

It's possible excel is not recognising all of your data as one table big table and is only sorting a part of it and leaving the rest as is.

Click any cell in your table and then press Ctrl+* --> the selected range is what excel thinks is your table. If you have columns outside of this - that's your problem.

[shg]

Welcome to the forum, ACCBRIA.

Please take a few minutes to read the forum rules, and then amend your thread title accordingly.

[ACCBRIAN]

I attempted to hit Cntrl + * and it resulted in "Cannot show outline symbols because no outline exists..."

I have attached my working database to this post. I'm not sure how to only display a sample.

[ACCBRIAN]

I attached the incorrect file. Here is the appropriate one.

[G0liath02]

You haveheaps of blank columns in your spreadsheet. Excel doesn't recognise it as one table. It see's A-L as one table and then all that hidden data you have there as another table.

Unhide all your data. Delete all the columns that have no entries so that there is at least some data in every column. Excel should now recognise this as one table. Press Ctrl+* to check.

[ACCBRIAN]

Well I have deleted all of the blank columns and unhid all of the hidden ones. I have entered in "temporary" into a majority of the semi-blank columns just so there is some data there. I still have the same prompt when I hit Cntrl + *.

I have attached what the edited version.

Thanks for the help so far.

[G0liath02]

That's funny, when i do it, it works now. You have to select a cell in the table.

You don't need to have 'temporary' riddled throughout your table. Try Selecting all the rows\columns you want in your table and then create an autofilter. Data >Filter> Autofilter i think this will also group it.

Off to bed for me now but if you still have troubles someone else will help.

[ACCBRIAN]

Well I tried what Goliath suggested, turning on AutoFilter. This only gave me a drop down bar with options to what looks like the standard "sort data" function. I keep trying the "Cntrl and *" but I continue to receive the same prompt, "Cannot show outline because no outline exists...Create Outline?" I click "Ok" and the next prompt states "Cannot create outline!", for what reason I don't know.

I am hesitant to call the "AutoFilter" suggestion the solution because it appears I'll still be sorting the data without excel recongnizing all my data as one big table.

I suppose I can elaborate a bit further on my issue in case there is something important I'm leaving out. I "sort" the data and if I do this enough times the data within their respective columns becomes aligned with a different row. Here is an example...the "Acres" value that should be lined up with one of the "Bakers Pond Conservation Area" rows will be found somewhere further down the column and lined up with lets say, "Frances Nickerson Reserve"

All the help so far is greatly appreciated!

[ACCBRIAN]

I was hoping today would reveal some posts with answers but the thread has fallen a few pages back. I'm going to give this a little bump and hope someone can lend a hand.

I am still having the same problem..."Cannot show outline because no outline exists...Create Outline?" I click "Ok" and the next prompt states "Cannot create outline!"

Anyone?