I'm used to expecting a grid of data to sort when you select a cell in the
top row and then right mouse sort. It treats the top row as a header and
sorts all the other rows. The grid must be bounded by empty cells.....
Maybe two deep... haven't tested that. But I have such a grid, quite large,
with a couple of rows of heading info above and some other info below....
heading and footing info separated by empty rows. But when I select a cell
in the top row of my grid, all the rows in the spread sheet sort instead of
just those in the grid. What might make this grid not be recognized as
independent?

TIA
LAS

Depending on which version of Excel you have, when you use the sort command (not from the icon on the taskbar) a dialogue box should pop up. Look for a check box that allows you to include headers (or "header row"). If it's checked, uncheck it and try your sort again.