<Nor can I create a special column to manipulate these

Why not? You can hide the column if you don't want to see it.

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Kind regards,

Niek Otten
Microsoft MVP - Excel

"facmanboss" wrote in message
...
I have procedures where I track each section in a spreadsheet along with
requirements for the section. One column has the section numbers. Here is
an
example to show the problem. Each number is in a seperate cell in the
column.
I used semicolons here to seperate the numbers on the same line for
posting
clarity. The cells are formatted as "text".

unsorted (also correct order): 1.3.2.1; 1.3.2.2; 1.3.2.3; 1.3.2.10;
1.3.2.11

sort ascending (incorrect order): 1.3.2.1; 1.3.2.10; 1.3.2.11; 1.3.2.2;
1.3.2.3

I cannot add leading zeroes manually such as 1.3.2.1 - 1.3.2.01.
Nor can I create a special column to manipulate these.
They are dynamic, thousands of rows long, and change constantly. hence you
see the need for proper sorting , easily.

VBA may or may not be able to be used in this application due to security
restrictions. But I'll entertain VBA solutions.

Thanks for any suggestions.
Facmanboss