Hi

didn't realise that you wanted them alphabetically - in that case you can
skip items i & ii and just start at iii

Cheers
JulieD

"PercivalMound" wrote in message
...
Thanks, your method does indeed work.

But unless I am misunderstanding your method, essentially it requires me
(not Excel) to do all the work of sorting, because I must scan all 50
columns, decide which one should come first alphabetically, then put a "1"
in
the cell above it; scan the remaining 49 columns, decide which should come
second, enter a "2" in the cell above it; and so on, through all 50
columns.

As long as I'm going to all that trouble, I may as well sort the columns
manually by inserting a new blank column to the left of my range, then
once I
locate the column that should come first, simply cut and paste it into the
new column, rather than enter a "1" at the top, and continue this method
through the other 49 columns.

Do these two methods essentially boil down to the same amount of work on
the
user's part?

"JulieD" wrote:

Hi

it can be done
i. insert a new row directly above your data
ii. number each column in the order that you want to see it in this row
e.g.
......A................B............C
1...3................2..............1
2...FName...LName........Title

iii. now click in a cell in your data range and choose data / sort
iv. click on OPTIONS button
v. choose SORT LEFT TO RIGHT
vi. click OK, the first Sort by field should now say Row 1 (or similar)
vii. click OK to sort

(of course do this on a backup of your workbook)

Hope this helps
Cheers
julieD

"PercivalMound" wrote in
message
...
In Excel 2003, I have a range 50 columns wide and 600 rows tall. Row 1
has
the column headings, while Rows 2-600 contain the data pertaining to
the
column heading shown in Row 1.

Now I want to sort the entire range according to the column headings,
so
that Location 1, which now occupies the first 600 rows of Column M,
will
end
up in Column A; Location 2, which now occupies 600 rows of Column AE,
will
end up in Column B; and so on, each column carrying along with it the
cells
under that column heading.

The Data Sort menu command will sort by column, but how do I sort by
using
Row 1 as my index?

More to the point, why has Excel been designed to sort rows according
to
column, but not sort columns according to row?