when i click the little box that is the cell at the top left hand of the
worksheet to highlight all cells, it does highlight all the cells. BUT the
cursor then does not work, it looks like a little plus sign, and I can't
choose any of the commands from the top line, like data sort, etc, it stays
a plus sign and i can't do anything; if i click the mouse button while all
is highlighted and the cursor is a plus sign, there is a delay, and then all
the highlighting goes away and the cursor returns to normal.

I used to be able to click that little cell in the upper left and then
choose commands, most frequently the data sort.

I have windows vista, excel 2003.

Why do you need to select all cells in the s/s? Is it a very large s/s?
What happens if you select just the columns of data - subject of the sort?

"LSchaefer33" wrote:

> when i click the little box that is the cell at the top left hand of the
> worksheet to highlight all cells, it does highlight all the cells. BUT the
> cursor then does not work, it looks like a little plus sign, and I can't
> choose any of the commands from the top line, like data sort, etc, it stays
> a plus sign and i can't do anything; if i click the mouse button while all
> is highlighted and the cursor is a plus sign, there is a delay, and then all
> the highlighting goes away and the cursor returns to normal.
>
> I used to be able to click that little cell in the upper left and then
> choose commands, most frequently the data sort.
>
> I have windows vista, excel 2003.