Hi RiverGirl,

You need to create a custom sort list. Go to Tools - Options - Custom
Lists tab.
In the List Entries box enter:
A
B
C
etc all the way down to 0 (or 9 if that is your last number)

Then press OK. This will create the sort list.

Then select your column and select Data - Sort and press the Options button.

Under First key sort order, click the sort list you created. This should do
it.

Thanks

"RiverGirl" wrote:

I want to sort contract numbers in Excel the same way we do in our filing
system at work. Our contracts contain both numbers and letters, but excel
won't let me sort the contracts with the letters first. For example:

Excel sorts our contract numbers like this:
123ABC123
ABC123123
ABCABC123 .... and so on

I want to sort them like this:
ABCABC123
ABC123123
123ABC123 .... etc.

Is there any way to do this in excel? I've tried creating new lists, but
they don't seem to make a difference, particularly with the numbers. The
default in excel is set to sort numbers before letters and I don't want it to
just do a reverse order, I want to put the letters before the numbers...

Thank you for your help!

~ RiverGirl