In Excel 2003, I have a range 50 columns wide and 600 rows tall. Row 1 has
the column headings, while Rows 2-600 contain the data pertaining to the
column heading shown in Row 1.

Now I want to sort the entire range according to the column headings, so
that Location 1, which now occupies the first 600 rows of Column M, will end
up in Column A; Location 2, which now occupies 600 rows of Column AE, will
end up in Column B; and so on, each column carrying along with it the cells
under that column heading.

The Data Sort menu command will sort by column, but how do I sort by using
Row 1 as my index?

More to the point, why has Excel been designed to sort rows according to
column, but not sort columns according to row?