I'm using a Excel 2002 spreadsheet to keep notes and Column A has the category phrase, Columns B, C, etc... have text
associated with the category. The problem is that the Col A category phrase is usually one word (ie Computer, Internet,
Politics) on one row, and the particular text associated with that phrase often occupies more than one row. Since I
have many categories, and repetitions of them, I want to be able to sort Col A alphabetically and have the text in the
related Columns (B,C, etc...) be locked to the category in Col A so that the text will also go along with the sort. Is
this possible in Excel?

Here's an example of what I mean:

A B C
================================================== ========
Politics blah blah blah blah blah
more blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah

Internet blah blah blah blah
blahblah blahblah blah blah

Computer yes yes yes yes yes yes maybe,yes yes yes yes
nonononononoblahblah why not, maybe, if, but
blahblah, blahblah blah

Internet okokokokokokokok yesterday,today,manana, aujourdhui
okdokyokdokywhatever

Computer dell,yahoo,google,mahimahi,tarzan,jane,silver,alas ka,moose,winkwink
hoje,ontem,amanha,sabado,domingo,hier,byebye,ciao, chow,woff,meow


Internet day-o,da-a-a-a-a-a-a-ay-ay-ay o
daylight come n me wanna go home

==========================================
It's a very useful way to jot down notes and things I want to remember, and be able to access easily. But I need to be
able to alphabetize the categories to make it easier to find things because the spreadsheet is getting too long.

Any ideas about this...?


John

I would use the techniques that Debra Dalgleish shares to fill those empty cells
in column A:

http://contextures.com/xlDataEntry02.html
http://www.contextures.com/xlVideos01.html#FillBlanks

But I would also add a helper column that is just numbered 1, 2, 3, ...

Then I could sort by the column A to get the categories in order and use this
helper column as the secondary sort key.

I like the value on every row so that I can filter and just see the category I
want.

But if you don't like the look of that, you could use Conditional formatting to
hide the duplicate categories.

Debra shows how he
http://contextures.com/xlCondFormat03.html#Duplicate

jbclem wrote:

I'm using a Excel 2002 spreadsheet to keep notes and Column A has the category phrase, Columns B, C, etc... have text
associated with the category. The problem is that the Col A category phrase is usually one word (ie Computer, Internet,
Politics) on one row, and the particular text associated with that phrase often occupies more than one row. Since I
have many categories, and repetitions of them, I want to be able to sort Col A alphabetically and have the text in the
related Columns (B,C, etc...) be locked to the category in Col A so that the text will also go along with the sort. Is
this possible in Excel?

Here's an example of what I mean:

A B C
================================================== ========
Politics blah blah blah blah blah
more blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah

Internet blah blah blah blah
blahblah blahblah blah blah

Computer yes yes yes yes yes yes maybe,yes yes yes yes
nonononononoblahblah why not, maybe, if, but
blahblah, blahblah blah

Internet okokokokokokokok yesterday,today,manana, aujourdhui
okdokyokdokywhatever

Computer dell,yahoo,google,mahimahi,tarzan,jane,silver,alas ka,moose,winkwink
hoje,ontem,amanha,sabado,domingo,hier,byebye,ciao, chow,woff,meow

Internet day-o,da-a-a-a-a-a-a-ay-ay-ay o
daylight come n me wanna go home

==========================================
It's a very useful way to jot down notes and things I want to remember, and be able to access easily. But I need to be
able to alphabetize the categories to make it easier to find things because the spreadsheet is getting too long.

Any ideas about this...?

John

--

Dave Peterson

Hi John,
When sorting select all the columns in your example A,B and C and then sort
by the first column A, text will go with the category in column A

"jbclem" wrote:

I'm using a Excel 2002 spreadsheet to keep notes and Column A has the category phrase, Columns B, C, etc... have text
associated with the category. The problem is that the Col A category phrase is usually one word (ie Computer, Internet,
Politics) on one row, and the particular text associated with that phrase often occupies more than one row. Since I
have many categories, and repetitions of them, I want to be able to sort Col A alphabetically and have the text in the
related Columns (B,C, etc...) be locked to the category in Col A so that the text will also go along with the sort. Is
this possible in Excel?

Here's an example of what I mean:

A B C
================================================== ========
Politics blah blah blah blah blah
more blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah

Internet blah blah blah blah
blahblah blahblah blah blah

Computer yes yes yes yes yes yes maybe,yes yes yes yes
nonononononoblahblah why not, maybe, if, but
blahblah, blahblah blah

Internet okokokokokokokok yesterday,today,manana, aujourdhui
okdokyokdokywhatever

Computer dell,yahoo,google,mahimahi,tarzan,jane,silver,alas ka,moose,winkwink
hoje,ontem,amanha,sabado,domingo,hier,byebye,ciao, chow,woff,meow


Internet day-o,da-a-a-a-a-a-a-ay-ay-ay o
daylight come n me wanna go home

==========================================
It's a very useful way to jot down notes and things I want to remember, and be able to access easily. But I need to be
able to alphabetize the categories to make it easier to find things because the spreadsheet is getting too long.

Any ideas about this...?


John