Excel auto-filter does not filter certain columns

[Eric_NY]

I've got a spreadsheet with about 80 columns. Auto-filter works fine, except
that it excludes certain columns. The excluded columns are text, and are
fairly wide (150 bytes, 240 bytes, 640 bytes).

Even though the text in these columns is quite wide, I still want to filter
them so I can use criteria such as "begins with" or "contains".

Is there any way to apply a filter to these columns?

Thanks.

 

[Shane Devenshire]

Hi,

Do you mean that columns A and M:X have filters applied by the ones in
between do not? What version of Excel are you using?

If you select all the columns of data you want filters on, say A:X, and then
choose Filter, AutoFilter. There should be filters for all the columns.

Cheers,
Shane Devenshire

 

[Eric_NY]

Yes to your first question. This is a big, dense table, with about 4000 rows
and about 80 columns. I put the cursor somewhere in the top row and selected
Data / Filter / AutoFilter. Excel put the little filter controls at the top
of most columns but skipped a few columns. So there's a filter on all
columns from A to BQ, except colums S, AU, BG, and BL. The columns that are
skipped are those which are filled with long text strings (150 bytes).

I have also tried to highlight the entire table A1:BQ3921, then choose Data
/ Filter / AutoFilter. But the same columns are skipped.

I'm using Excel 2003 SP3.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Jim Rech]

I had no luck trying to recreate the issue with a table similar to the one
you described. I wonder if this is a "redraw issue" meaning that the arrow
is there but not visible for some reason. If so, if you select one of these
header cells and press Alt-Down Arrow you will see the same drop down as you
would have clicking the arrow (Sort Ascending, etc).

 

[Shane Devenshire]

Hi,

are the long text fields "best fit" and if so can you see the right-hand
side of the cells. Because if you can't you won't see the autofilters.

Try:
1. Word wrapping the cells and then narrowing the columns
2. Creating an abbreviated title which is shorter

If this helps, please click the Yes button

Cheers,
Shane Devenshire

 

[Roger Govier]

Hi Eric
I can't reproduce your problem.
It sounds as though you don't have a header row, which means that your row 1
would be excluded from any filtering anyway.
Take Autofilter off, Insert a blank row above your data, then put Autofilter
back on.