Earl,

In Excel 2003 Help, there is an article, "Sorting a range that contains
numbers stored as text."

It discusses the differences between the choices "Sort numbers, and numbers
stored as text, separately" and "Sort anything that looks like a number as a
number." But it does not say anywhere in the article (or anywhere in Excel
Help or in MSKB or the group or the internet that I can find) where one has
the opportunity to make this choice.

I did find a registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\E xcel\Options

with the value:
"SortTextAsNumbers"=dword:00000001

When SortTextAsNumbers is set to 0, it sorts as you describe, with all
numbers formatted as numbers at the top, then all of the text, including
text that looks like numbers, sorted together at the bottom.

When SortTextAsNumbers is set to 1, it sorts as I described, with all
numbers AND text that looks like numbers sorted together at the top, with
all other text sorted together at the bottom.

But I cannot find where in Excel I can make this choice.

Once upon a time, a dialog box would pop up when you tried to sort data that
contained text that looks like numbers, giving you the choice. But it
doesn't currently pop up on my computer or on any other computer in the
building. (We are running Office 2003 Pro SP1 on Windows XP Pro SP2 with
latest updates on both.)

What happened to the dialog box? Or where else can I set the option?

Tim C

"Earl Kiosterud" wrote:

Tim,

Does "nope" mean that using my formula in a helper column didn't work? It
can only result in text, and thus could only be sorted alphabetically, it
seems to me. That just has to work for you. HAS to! :)

The dialog box to which you refer may be the one you get with Data - Sort.
The buttons on the toolbar are quick sort buttons, and don't give a
dialog.
--
Earl Kiosterud
www.smokeylake.com

"Tim C" wrote in message
...
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

"Earl Kiosterud" wrote:

Tim,

You need an alphabetic sort, but your 5-digit zip codes are numeric.
You can convert them all with a helper column. Presuming the list is in
A2 and down:

=TEXT(A1,"00000")

Copy down with Fill Handle.

Now to permanently convert the originals, select all of helper column,
noting which cell your selection started, Copy. Select the
corresponding (first) cell in the original column. Edit - Paste
special - values. You no longer need the helper column. Now sort.
--
Earl Kiosterud
www.smokeylake.com

"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