When sorting in Excel it automatically selects the whole page.?

Question

I used to be able to sort my data by range.
I have a data sheet that collects names, dates, times, etc.
I do an entire month at a time, only seperated by a blank line.
I used to be able to go in and select(highlight) that day, then right click sort, a-z and it would be just fine,
Now when I do the above steps as soon as I hit sort, it switches from just having my cells highlighted to the entire page being highlighted.
The same thing happens if I select the range of the day, and click the Data tab, then sort, the entire page is then highlighted.
How do I stop this?

Answer 1

I am sending you an example video of mine, sorting with excel.

You should be able to use similar buttons to sort your

excel table, referring to any column you like and

expanding the list that will be sorted-rearranged.

Hope it helps

Answer 2

Somewhere along the line, your data may have been turned into a Table, which has sort and filter controls built into it, and other improvements that make it easier to work with the entire range. If you select a cell in the table's active area, you should see the Table Design and Table Format tabs in the Ribbon. If so, you can turn the table back into a regular range using the Table Design > Convert to Range command.



You may find that filtering the results and sorting the remainder is more useful than your prior method. Filtering does not sort results; it hides rows that don't contain the data you want. For instance, you can filter for all rows that have data from a specific week, or that contain the value Orange, or even values that have the same conditional formatting.



Using the regular Sort command, you can also instruct Excel to sort by days and then by names (or another column). Using the table's sort/filter controls, you would first sort by names, then by dates, or right-click for the Advanced Sort command.

Answer 3

Have you tried using a sort instead of right clicking and sorting A-Z? A filter has the capability to only work with cells that are not blank which should resolve your problems

Answer 4

Yes, it will also sort hidden rows (due to your selection filter).



Just reapply the filter after sorting.



OK