cannot sort column

[drew.laura]

Hi,
I am trying to help a neighbor who has a buisiness.
He is trying to sort a column of people on a table in Word
alphabetically.
Apparently his secretary which has been doing this for years can't do
it all of a sudden.
I tried and I get this error:
Cannot sort a table with merged cells.
I am lost...anyone that can help I appreciate it.
thanks laura

 

[Jezebel]

It means that the table has merged or split cells in it. Once the table has
merged or split cells, Word can no longer recognise the columns, and thus
cannot sort them.

It's likely to be a single row that's causing the problem. If you can find
that row, delete it and re-enter the data in a row that's correctly
formatted. Try switching on the display of gridlines: the mal-formed row
might be obvious. If it's a very large table, copy it and paste it into
Excel -- the bad row(s) will end up with data in the wrong columns.

 

[drew.laura]

Jezebel, how do I turn on the gridlines.....sorry, very beginner here!
I did try Excel, I was not able to sort that column either.....
thanksLaura

 

[drew.laura]

the grid lines are ok....they are already on...
any other ideas?
I copy and pasted the first page into excel and it sorted fine.
When I copy and pasted the second page it said"\:

"this operation requires the merged cells to be identically sized. "

All I see is 4 columns, one with a number, one with a name, one with a
type and one with a name ...
I don't see anything goofy looking.
I am confused.
thanks Laura



He is trying to sort a column of people on a table in Word

 

[Jezebel]

Keep looking: you've established that the problem is somewhere on the second
page.

A couple of other things to try --

1. Select each column in turn: the highlighting will be irregular where the
cells are out of whack.

2. Convert the table to text (on the Table menu) then convert back.

 

[drew.laura]

there was still nothing obviously out of wack when I highlighted it...
I did convert it to text then back and it WORKED! thanks so much!!!
Laura