Auto Filter - It's broken! Help! (Office '03)

[Elgee]

So - I can't seem to find anyone who has ever seen this issue -
I have a generic worksheet - standard columns / rows - all related to
various projects / finance info etc. There is nothing fancy or special about
it - very vanilla - no formulas etc.
I need to filter on various criteria such as project ID or status, phase
etc. I turn on the auto-filters and sometimes they work and sometimes they
don't. I click the black arrow and scroll to "status" I am looking for and
my list will filter. Then maybe I will select another column to drill down
further. When I attempt to "un-filter" one of the columns, often the drop
down arrow no longer works - I click and click and no response. I then have
to "show all" and then turn off the auto filters, and highlight the whole
document and "unhide" the rows which were filtered out.

This only started recently and not related to one specific report or
workbook. I have NO idea what is going on. I just want to be able to use
the auto-filters as they are designed and as I have in the past. I must have
clicked something somewhere - problem is I can't find it and have no idea
what it might be!

Thanks for your help!

 

[Matt Geare]

Hi,

I am sure someone else will provide a more comprehensive and technical
answer, but I can reassure you that this Auto Filter behaviour sounds very
familiar to me!

One possible fix is to use a "advanced" filter - check the help system - all
you need to set up are the data range and the criteria range ... suggest you
use named ranges for these and if you frequently use the same criteria you
might want to consider a couple of macro buttons for your common filters.

Cheers,

Matt

 

[Elgee]

Thanks Matt!
Macros and VB Programming are way beyond the extent of my knowledge - but -
I'll try the advanced filter. Its just odd to me that this is a new issue
for me - I've never seen this before.

Looking forward to other suggetsions as well!