Nope.

No matter how or when the data is entered or when the format is set to text,
the text that looks like numbers sorts separately from other text.

It used to be that a dialog box asked how I wanted it sorted. I don't know
if that was in an earlier version of Excel (currently 2003) or if I told it
to quit asking me and I don't know how to turn it back on.

Specifically, I am experimenting with sorting a mix of 5-digit and 9-digit
zip codes. All are formatted as text. All of the 5-digit zip codes sort
above all of the 9-digit zip codes thus:

01234

12345

23456

56789

12000-2614

45623-4512



instead of the desired:



01234

12000-2614

12345

23456

45623-4512

56789



Tim C



"Sloth" wrote in message
...
If you want it sorted as text, then you have to change the format to text.
There is no option to sort as text or numbers. There is a small glitch I
noticed that when you changed the cells' format to text it still sorts it
as
numbers. You have to manually double click on each cell and hit enter to
make the format "set in". After you do this it will sort as text.

There are ways to avoid this problem in the future. 1) change the cells
format you know are text before you begin typing. 2) use an apostrophe
before all numbers to tell the computer it is text; it outputs it without
the
apostrophe (For Example type '12 instead of 12).

hope this helps!

"Tim C" wrote:

Excel 2003

When I sort a list that contains text that looks like numbers, I am NOT
getting the pop-up asking if whether I want them to sort as numbers or
text.
It just automatically sorts text that looks like numbers as numbers,
which
is not what I want.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Tim C