To sort a list, choose a field that you want to sort by, and click on the auto filter arrow at the top of the column (if you cannot see the AutoFilter arrows just click on a column heading in your list). Clicking on the arrow will display a drop list of options for filtering your records.

 

 

The drop list that you see is an AutoFilter list. Any option you choose from the list will be applied to the records, based on the field the list belongs to. In this image, the AutoFilter drop list for the Age field is shown. You can see some filtering options (Sort, All, Top 10, Custom), and lower, a list of values for this field from each record.

 

The first two options on the list are sort options. Sort ascending will sort the records in your list from smallest to largest based on the current field. Sort Descending will do the same thing but from largest to smallest.

 

If you click the sort ascending button, the records will be sorted from smallest to largest based on this field.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the same list as above, sorted from smallest to largest according to age. You could have just as easily sorted the records according to Name, Height, or Weight.

 

 

 

 

You can also sort your records by clicking on a cell in the list and choosing Data->sort from the menu bar. If you do this, your list will be shaded in blue, and the sort dialogue box will be displayed.

 

 

 

 

With the sort dialogue box, you can select a field to sort by, and chose between ascending or descending order. The fields for the selected data are available in drop lists in the sort dialogue box.

 

After you choose a field to Sort by, you can also choose a Then By sorting field. If there are values in a column that are the same for the first sorting field, (two people named Bob for instance) the order for these two records will be decided by the then by sorting field. You can even specify a third sorting field for the unlikely event that there are equal values in the first two.

 

As an example, the records Bob, 50, 170 and Bob, 50, 169, would be sorted as:

Bob, 50, 169,

Bob, 50, 170,

if the sorting fields were ordered as Name, Age, and Weight.

 

When you finish configuring the Sort by dialogue box, click OK, and the sorting scheme will be implemented on the list of records.