You need to use a helper column that identifies the numeric value of the
month

=Month(B3) in C3 for example.

Then sort on the column with this formula.

I am not sure how a format would decide when it is appropriate to display
Jan 01 vice Jan. In any event, conditional formatting in a format string is
very limited - it is really restricted to magnitude as a decision criteria.

Conditional formatting under the format menu does not control the number
format.

--
Regards,
Tom Ogilvy


"Dave "IT"" wrote in message
.. .
I have a field where I want the display to be in text, but when I sort, I
want to sort by date. Here's my dilema, though. I sometimes need to
report
specific dates (Jan 13), but other times, just the month (Jan). Then, on
the sort, I want it to return them grouped together.

Currently I have a custom date format of 'mmm dd' so my display is 'Jan
13'.
When I just type in 'Jan', it automatically changes it to 'Jan 01' to
match
my format...don't want that.

So, how can I get a format that will display 'Jan 13' or 'Jan' if it's
just
a month (but still let me sort on that column so all the Jan's are
together,
all the Feb's are together, etc.)

Thanks in Advance,
Dave