SORTING BY COLUNM ENTRY

[Guest]

I want to SORT a worksheet by a column that is formatted as a date. I keep
getting the following message whenver i try, "This operation requires the
merged cells to be identically sized".

So i copied all the cells into a new worksheet that had all cells in default
sixe format. Result was the same.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[Fred Smith]

This operation should be pretty straight forward. Excel should handle it easily.
What do you have highlighted before you click on Data>Sort...? What do you enter
for Key1, 2 and 3?

 

[Guest]

What the error message means is that you have merged some cells in your table
and therefore, sorting can be done. You must unmerge those cells before
continuing.

 

[Guest]

Sorry, I meant sorting CANNOT be done if cells are merged.

 

[Guest]

The ws is a list of ralle ticket books, who signed them out, when they were
returned and how many were sold. I want to SORT on the column "when they were
returned" or COLUMN E in my sheet. I selected the entire PRINT AREA which is
cells 1 thru 1002 and columns A thru M (this includes the headers) . Key 1 is
COL E or Date Returned" in MM/DD/YY format.

 

[Guest]

How do I determine what has been merged and then unmerge it?

 

[Guest]

I'm sure there must be a better, more sophisticated, way to find out but I
use the Find function:
Press Ctrl + "F" to open the Find box. Click "Format" button and select
"Alignment" tab. Check "Merge Cells".
This allows you to find all the merge cells one by one.
Alternatively, if you're sure you don't want any merged cells, you can
select your whole worksheet, go to Format> Cells> Alignment tab and uncheck
the "Merge Cells" box. You should then get a message asking if you're sure
you want to unmerge your cells...

Hope this helps.

 

[Max]

... How do I determine what has been merged
and then unmerge it?

Think the easiest way is to get rid of all the merge cells in the sheet. If
this is not a problem (the "total removal of all merge cells" part), then
you could try this on a spare copy:

Press CTRL + A to select entire sheet
Click Format > Cells > Alignment tab
Click to *clear* the "Merge cells" checkbox
(may have to click a few times)
Click OK

And .. guess you could also try reinstating the merge via an entire sheet
copy > paste special > formats (copy from your original sheet, paste the
format into the spare sheet)

But think it's better not to use merge cells ..
If you need to "center" col headers, try instead:
Format > Cells > Alignment tab
Under Text alignment:
select "Centre Across Selection" > OK

You'd get the same visual effect
(w/o the "downstream" pains associated with merged cells)

To find merged cells wherever they may be, try this previous post by Dave
Peterson in .misc: http://tinyurl.com/83emz

 

[Sergio Walnut Creek]

I had the same problem and reading previous answers solved it. Thanks.