Kitty

Take this as an attempt to inform, not to belittle.

7 columns by 123 rows is a tiny workbook.

Probably only about 25kb depending upon complexity.

A large workbook would be 50MB.

Further to Julie's post.........are you selecting all columns before sorting
on the names.

Do not rely on Excel to get the sort correct all the time.

When you copy the sorted results to a new sheet in a new workbook, perhaps do
it in two steps.

First copy the data then copy again using EditPaste SpecialFormats.


Gord Dibben Excel MVP

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 15:55:01 +0800, "JulieD"
wrote:

Hi Kitty

what do you mean by "messes up the format"
and what version of excel are you using?

Cheers
JulieD

"Kitty" wrote in message
...
Hi there,
I am having trouble working with Excel. Here is what
happens. My master spreadsheet is very big: 123 rows and
7 columns. I need to divide the master spreadsheet into 8
separete (smaller) spreadsheets to send those smaller
spreadsheets to 8 different people. The problem is when I
try to first sort the master spreadsheet by peoples' name
and then copy and paste the sorted section into a brand
new spreadsheet, Excell messes up the format. I have been
struggling spending numerous hours on just trying to
format that monster. The only solution I found is to save
the master spreadsheet 8 times and delete sections that
don't apply, which makes the process extremely time
consuming and prone to error. Is there a better way to
manage large spreadsheets like that? I tried the Help
section, but it did not seem to really apply to this
issue.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thank you