I'm keeping information regarding work sites in rows in a spreadsheet. The
information contains data & formula. There may be multiple rows per work
site. Rows belonging to a particular site are kept together, and sites are
seperated by a colored divider row.There is also a header row. Each week a
new divider row is made & several rows about a particular site is added.
Therefore, the sites are grouped as a result of the way the information is
added, not by use of any features of Excel.

The problem is, when the sheet is sorted all the divider rows group
together, & if the sheet is saved that way its a pain to put right.Also, if
information is added out of sequence it has to be inserted into the correct
place, rather than added at the end & sorted by the sheet.

My questions a

1) What would be the best way to format the worksheet so that the groups of
information are apparent, yet the sheet is sortable & formatting is easily
maintained?

2) Is it a bad practice to use divider rows in this manner? If so, what is
a better way?

Thanks for any help!
SD

add a column called Site, and put the site identifier on every row. That's
the only way to keep them together for analysis. If you want a divider row,
have a blank row with just the site name on it.

"sd" wrote:


I'm keeping information regarding work sites in rows in a spreadsheet. The
information contains data & formula. There may be multiple rows per work
site. Rows belonging to a particular site are kept together, and sites are
seperated by a colored divider row.There is also a header row. Each week a
new divider row is made & several rows about a particular site is added.
Therefore, the sites are grouped as a result of the way the information is
added, not by use of any features of Excel.

The problem is, when the sheet is sorted all the divider rows group
together, & if the sheet is saved that way its a pain to put right.Also, if
information is added out of sequence it has to be inserted into the correct
place, rather than added at the end & sorted by the sheet.

My questions a

1) What would be the best way to format the worksheet so that the groups of
information are apparent, yet the sheet is sortable & formatting is easily
maintained?

2) Is it a bad practice to use divider rows in this manner? If so, what is
a better way?

Thanks for any help!
SD

I usually recommend keeping everything in a tabular format. Everything
should be in a single block with no blank rows or columns. Making
things visually pleasing by deliberately putting blank rows in data
usually means making the spreadsheet non-functional in terms of
sorting, autofilter, macros, etc.


HTH,
JP


On Jan 28, 9:11*am, sd wrote:
I'm keeping information regarding work sites in rows in a spreadsheet. The
information contains data & formula. There may be multiple rows per work
site. Rows belonging to a particular site are kept together, and sites are
seperated by a colored divider row.There is also a header row. Each week a
new divider row is made & several rows about a particular site is added.
Therefore, the sites are grouped as a result of the way the information is
added, not by use of any features of Excel.

The problem is, when the sheet is sorted all the divider rows group
together, & if the sheet is saved that way its a pain to put right.Also, if
information is added out of sequence it has to be inserted into the correct
place, rather than added at the end & sorted by the sheet.

My questions a

* * * * 1) What would be the best way to format the worksheet so that the groups of
information are apparent, yet the sheet is sortable & formatting is easily
maintained?

* * * * 2) Is it a bad practice to use divider rows in this manner? If so, what is
a better way?

Thanks for any help!
SD

You could name each work site range with a name, INSERT/NAME/DEFINE and then
sort each named range.

The name can only include letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0 through 9
and the "_" underscore character. Each range name has to start with a letter
and cannot have any spaces.

Personally, I would maintain each work site on a separate worksheet and then
sorting is not an issue.

Hope this helps...
--
Kevin Backmann


"sd" wrote:


I'm keeping information regarding work sites in rows in a spreadsheet. The
information contains data & formula. There may be multiple rows per work
site. Rows belonging to a particular site are kept together, and sites are
seperated by a colored divider row.There is also a header row. Each week a
new divider row is made & several rows about a particular site is added.
Therefore, the sites are grouped as a result of the way the information is
added, not by use of any features of Excel.

The problem is, when the sheet is sorted all the divider rows group
together, & if the sheet is saved that way its a pain to put right.Also, if
information is added out of sequence it has to be inserted into the correct
place, rather than added at the end & sorted by the sheet.

My questions a

1) What would be the best way to format the worksheet so that the groups of
information are apparent, yet the sheet is sortable & formatting is easily
maintained?

2) Is it a bad practice to use divider rows in this manner? If so, what is
a better way?

Thanks for any help!
SD

I'd use a helper column (A) with sites code as foloows:

A B
Site code Site name
S1 Site one
S1
S1 divider row
S2 Site two
S2
S2 divider row

Then always sort by Site code column, followed by other columns you really
need!

Regards,
Stefi


€žsd€� ezt Ã*rta:


I'm keeping information regarding work sites in rows in a spreadsheet. The
information contains data & formula. There may be multiple rows per work
site. Rows belonging to a particular site are kept together, and sites are
seperated by a colored divider row.There is also a header row. Each week a
new divider row is made & several rows about a particular site is added.
Therefore, the sites are grouped as a result of the way the information is
added, not by use of any features of Excel.

The problem is, when the sheet is sorted all the divider rows group
together, & if the sheet is saved that way its a pain to put right.Also, if
information is added out of sequence it has to be inserted into the correct
place, rather than added at the end & sorted by the sheet.

My questions a

1) What would be the best way to format the worksheet so that the groups of
information are apparent, yet the sheet is sortable & formatting is easily
maintained?

2) Is it a bad practice to use divider rows in this manner? If so, what is
a better way?

Thanks for any help!
SD

Select each site and
Excel 2003 Data List Create List
Excel 2007 Insert Table
Each site can then be sorted, formatted,
edited and expanded independently.
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