I have a list of place names, some of which start with an apostrophe (e.g.
'Awarta, and 'Ashira) but Excel won't show the apostrphe - it keeps hiding it
even when I set the format to text. Not all names have an apostrophe and I
want to be able to sort in alphabetical order so that Anabta would come
before 'Awarta.

The only way I can think of is to put a space in fromt of every name. Doeas
anyone know how I can format the cell so that I don't have to have this space?

Thansk
Nic

Nic:
Excel treats an apostrophe as a flag indicating text. So '0001 gets
displayed as 0001 not just 1.
To get a 'real' apostrophe to display you need to insert two of them before
the first letter as in ''Anabta. Only one will display or print.
best wishes

--
Bernard V Liengme
www.stfx.ca/people/bliengme
remove caps from email

"Nic" wrote in message
...
I have a list of place names, some of which start with an apostrophe (e.g.
'Awarta, and 'Ashira) but Excel won't show the apostrphe - it keeps hiding
it
even when I set the format to text. Not all names have an apostrophe and
I
want to be able to sort in alphabetical order so that Anabta would come
before 'Awarta.

The only way I can think of is to put a space in fromt of every name.
Doeas
anyone know how I can format the cell so that I don't have to have this
space?

Thansk
Nic

Thanks, Bernard. simple when you know how!

"Bernard Liengme" wrote:

Nic:
Excel treats an apostrophe as a flag indicating text. So '0001 gets
displayed as 0001 not just 1.
To get a 'real' apostrophe to display you need to insert two of them before
the first letter as in ''Anabta. Only one will display or print.
best wishes

--
Bernard V Liengme
www.stfx.ca/people/bliengme
remove caps from email

"Nic" wrote in message
...
I have a list of place names, some of which start with an apostrophe (e.g.
'Awarta, and 'Ashira) but Excel won't show the apostrphe - it keeps hiding
it
even when I set the format to text. Not all names have an apostrophe and
I
want to be able to sort in alphabetical order so that Anabta would come
before 'Awarta.

The only way I can think of is to put a space in fromt of every name.
Doeas
anyone know how I can format the cell so that I don't have to have this
space?

Thansk
Nic