A Tutorial to Sort in Microsoft Excel

Excel 2003
1. Open the file in Excel 2003 with data that you would like to sort.
2. Highlight the data that you would like to sort. If you want to sort the entire worksheet, click the small rectangle located in the top-left corner between the 'A' column and the '1' row.
3. Click 'Data' from the drop-down menu located above the toolbar.
4. Click 'Sort.'
5. The 'Sort' dialog box is displayed. Specify which column you would like the data sorted by first, second and third.
6. Specify if you want the data sort in ascending (alphabetical or number sequence low to high) or descending (reverse alphabetical and number sequence high to low).
7. Under the 'My list has' section, choose whether your data has a 'Header Row' or 'No Header Row.' This refers to whether you input a title for the columns that you want to sort. For example, is one of the columns titled 'date' or 'name?' If you do have header titles for your columns, you can click the 'Header Row' radio button and Excel will sort the data starting below your header rows. If you do not have header rows, click the 'No Header Rows' radio button and Excel will sort all the data.
8. Click 'OK' to sort your data.
9. If you only want to sort a single column of data, highlight just the column of data you would like to sort and then follow steps 3 through 8.
Excel 2007 and 2010
10. Open the file in Excel 2007 or 2010 with data that you would like to sort.
11. Highlight the data that you would like to sort. If you want to sort the entire worksheet, click the small rectangle designated with a small triangle located in the top-left corner between the 'A' column and the '1' row.
12. Click on the 'Data' tab located across the top of the screen.
13. Locate the 'Sort Filter' box.
14. This box displays the options of 'Sort A to Z' (ascending order) or 'Sort Z to A' (descending order) or to choose custom sort under 'Sort.'
15. Clicking 'A to Z' or 'Z to A' will quickly sort the data you have highlighted.
16. Click 'Sort' to apply additional parameters for the sort.
17. A 'Sort' dialog box is opened displaying the parameter choices of 'Column,' 'Sort On' and 'Order.'
18. Click the 'Column' drop-down menu.
19. A listing of the highlighted columns is displayed. Choose which column you would like to first sort the data by (i.e., date, name, title).
20. Next click the 'Sort On' drop-down menu.
21. Excel allows you to choose which feature you would like to sort the data on. For example, you can choose to sort the data by the values in the cells, the color of the cell (if you have colored coded your data), the cell font color (if you have colored the text within the cell, such as negative numbers being colored red) or cell icon.
22. Next click the 'Order' drop-down menu.
23. Choose whether to sort the data in ascending (A to Z alphabetical or number sequence low to high) or descending (Z to A reverse alphabetical and number sequence high to low) order.
24. At this point, if you would like to sort the data by data in multiple columns, click the 'Add Level' button located at the top-left of the 'Sort' dialog box. This feature allows you to sort first by the data in one column and then by the data in a second column, third column and so on. For example, if you have an address book in Excel, you could choose to sort the address book first by last name, then by first name. At that point, you could even choose to sort it by a third criterion of city. Your data would then be displayed in alphabetical order by last name and then first name, and then categorized by city.
25. Click 'OK' when you are finished setting the parameters.
26. If you only want to sort a single column of data, click in the column header cell of the column of data you would like to sort and then click either the 'A to Z' or 'Z to A' button.