Sorting the spreadsheet!

[Dan the Man]

I'm very familiar with highlighting the document area, and choosing a column
to sort by depending upon my desired sort criteria (last name, state, etc).
Are there any methods or formulas which are able to automatically sort, and
take into account the rows and columns that I tend to sort by?

I always sort by Last name (column A), and highlight accross several rows
and columns when re-sorting my spreadhsheet (typically between Column A and
AQ, and all rows containing data (currently 1-166-but that continues to
expand).

Typically I do a sort after adding a days worth of data, but it just seems
time consuming to shade the affected area and re-sort manually all the time.
Seeing as Excel does everything but make coffee (lol), I assume that there
may be a quicker or more automatic way to sort.

Thanks!

Dan

 

[Toppers]

Record the sort as a macro and then use the macro; it might need some
"tweaking" from the initial recording.

 

[Dave Peterson]

In xl2003, you can apply data|filter|autofilter to the range and use the
dropdown arrow to sort your data.

Debra Dalgleish has a technique at her site that adds invisible rectangles in
the headers and then sorts the data by that field when you click on one of those
rectangles.

http://contextures.com/xlSort02.html

If you're new to macros, you may want to read David McRitchie's intro at:
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/getstarted.htm