Bug when sorting in Excel

[dporter]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Power PC

I have a table with 10 columns and 500 rows.

The first five rows contain text. Data starts on row 6.

I click in cell A6 and drag down to the bottom right hand cell highlighting the data. I am now looking at the last few rows of data.

I select Data->Sort from the menu.

The excel page now displays the first few rows of data and I have a pop up box that gives me options to sort. I can see my header rows because I am looking at the top of the page.

However, if I do the reverse. That is to say, if I click in the bottom right hand cell first and drag up to A6 (highlighting the data) then select Data->sort Excel then jumps down so I'm looking at the last few rows of data.

This is an issue because now I can't see my header rows to know how to sort.

I know the work around - always highlight from top left to bottom right. But it still seems like a bug.

The table

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Power PC

I have a table with 10 columns and 500 rows.

The first five rows contain text. Data starts on row 6.

I click in cell A6 and drag down to the bottom right hand cell highlighting
the data. I am now looking at the last few rows of data.

I select Data->Sort from the menu.

The excel page now displays the first few rows of data and I have a pop up
box that gives me options to sort. I can see my header rows because I am
looking at the top of the page.

However, if I do the reverse. That is to say, if I click in the bottom right
hand cell first and drag up to A6 (highlighting the data) then select
Data->sort Excel then jumps down so I'm looking at the last few rows of data.

This is an issue because now I can't see my header rows to know how to sort.

I know the work around - always highlight from top left to bottom right. But
it still seems like a bug.

Well, it's not a bug - it's designed that way, and IIRC, works that way
in every version of Win and Mac XL.

It's not as much a matter of where you start as it is XL returning the
focus to the active cell when the menu item is chosen. Given that the
active cell is assumed to be the most important cell in most other
areas, I can understand the design decision (for one thing, not *all* XL
models are exclusively top-down).

Since you have headers in Row 5, select the "Header row" radio button in
the Sort dialog will display the headers in the 'Sort by' dropdown.

As an alternative, after dragging from the bottom right to A6, press tab
to activate cell A6 before choosing Data/Sort.