I'm trying to sort a column in Excel 2003. It seemed to work fine, then started ignoring the first row (sorting 251 of 252 rows and ignoring the first row). I'm using the "sort" button. I did a bit of searching and someone suggested selecting the data, hitting "control + A" and then sorting. Worked once then stopped working. I have multiple columns (real estate sales data) that include dates, numbers, text, etc, but each column is formatted consistently.

The workbook is not protected, all cells have data in them, and I've checked the formatting for the column I'm sorting (currency, no decimals, "$ included"). It's driving me nuts - anyone have thoughts on what I'm missing?

On Tue, 3 Jan 2012 21:58:40 +0000, PagosaJoe wrote:


I'm trying to sort a column in Excel 2003. It seemed to work fine, then
started ignoring the first row (sorting 251 of 252 rows and ignoring the
first row). I'm using the "sort" button. I did a bit of searching and
someone suggested selecting the data, hitting "control + A" and then
sorting. Worked once then stopped working. I have multiple columns
(real estate sales data) that include dates, numbers, text, etc, but
each column is formatted consistently.

The workbook is not protected, all cells have data in them, and I've
checked the formatting for the column I'm sorting (currency, no
decimals, "$ included"). It's driving me nuts - anyone have thoughts on
what I'm missing?

Here is what I think may be going on:

I don't recall just where it is in Excel 2003, but somewhere there is an option for sorting where you actually choose the column(s). In that dialog box there is a "My column has headers" option and my guess is that someone selected that option at some time in the past. Once selected, it will stick, even with the single-button sorting.