Need to scroll up to access the ascending/descending option in fil

[Guest]

I may be alone here, but I use filters on Excel sheets quite a lot, mainly
for the ease of sorting data without having to select the cells first.

Anyway, I find it quite annoying that everytime I want to sort my data in
ascending or descending order, I access the filter and then have to scroll
up. Why isn't it just the first option in the drop down list by default? I
am being very picky here, but if anyone else experiences this frustration,
let it be known please!

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http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...dg=microsoft.public.excel.worksheet.functions

 

[Gord Dibben]

The primary use of Autofilter is for filtering values, not sorting, so values to
filter naturally are listed first as would seem logical.

Data>Sort is for sorting.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Dave Peterson]

Except that xl2003 (IIRC) added Sort Ascending and Sort Descending to the top of
the autofilter list.

I'm not sure if this will help the original poster, but...

I've added a ShowAll button to my favorite toolbar. I can click that to see all
the rows in the filtered range.

And the two sort options are right at the top of the drop down.

Tools|Customize|commands tab|data category
scroll down looking for "Show All" and drag it to your toolbar.

 

[Gord Dibben]

I am/was aware of the Sort Ascending and Descending options in the Autofilter
list, but consider these to be secondary functions so they don't need to be the
default selections in a filter list as far as I am concerned.

Others will differ, but won't change my mind.

You wanna sort....sort

You wanna filter....filter.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Dave Peterson]

To be honest, each time I see those Sort options in that list, it's like the
first time I see them.

"Hey, look at that. They added Sort options to the Filter dropdown!"

(I don't use them either. Something about learning something new????)

 

[Gord Dibben]

It's an "old dog" thing in my case.

To be honest, each time I see those Sort options in that list, it's like the
first time I see them.

"Hey, look at that. They added Sort options to the Filter dropdown!"

(I don't use them either. Something about learning something new????)

Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Guest]

Thanks very much to both of you.

To David, thanks for that Show All tip. I've added that to my toolbar now.
I should have been clearer in my original post though, because when the
filter gets 'annoying' to me, is when I have a lot of different values in my
spreadsheet and so the filter then has a need for a scroll bar. That's when
the two 'secondary features' start to disappear up above the filter values.

To Gord, I agree that probably initially a filter is a filter, but since
adding the functionalilty of the sort to the filter it's made my life a lot
easier. I'm using spreadsheets with thousands of rows and using the filter
to sort them is much better for me. It's a personal preference I guess and I
won't change my mind...

 

[Gord Dibben]

Stick with it Michelle.

Don't let some "old dog" push you around<g>

Gord

Thanks very much to both of you.

To David, thanks for that Show All tip. I've added that to my toolbar now.
I should have been clearer in my original post though, because when the
filter gets 'annoying' to me, is when I have a lot of different values in my
spreadsheet and so the filter then has a need for a scroll bar. That's when
the two 'secondary features' start to disappear up above the filter values.

To Gord, I agree that probably initially a filter is a filter, but since
adding the functionalilty of the sort to the filter it's made my life a lot
easier. I'm using spreadsheets with thousands of rows and using the filter
to sort them is much better for me. It's a personal preference I guess and I
won't change my mind...

Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP