Once you formatted them as text, you would need to reenter the numbers. OR,
in a helper column, enter =A1&"" and fill down, then copy/paste special
values on top of A and they'll sort as you want.

"M" wrote:

Under sort options, I have selected a first key sort order of "1, 1A, 1B". I
would like to be able to sort in the order "1, 2, 2B, 3, 4A, 4B, etc." It
seems that no matter how I format the cells in the colum, alphanumerics
always are sorted AFTER numbers. Keep in mind, this is the second sort
criteria and some cells in this column are blank. What am I missing?