Make a helper column
C1: =TRIM(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1,"(",""),")",""))

the Trim isn't really necessary,
Make a helper column in this case C based on Column A
and sort on Column C instead of 1 as your major sort field,
you probably want to use Ctrl+A to select all cells (ctrl+shift+spacebar on Excel 2003).
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HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"baroen" wrote in message
...

I'm trying to figure out how to ignore a parentheses, i.e. (, in an
alphabetical list so the the data is sorted using the first letter
inside the paren. For example; ant, (ape), bear, (bat), etc. is the
correct order but the Excel default sorts the names with parens as
numbers and returns (ape), (bat), ant, bear.
Thanks


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baroen
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