WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:11.670 --> 00:00:14.980 When you have a lot of different rows in your spreadsheet, you may want to sort the data 00:00:14.980 --> 00:00:17.550 so you can view it more easily. 00:00:17.550 --> 00:00:24.430 Sorting can re-order things alphabetically, numerically, by date, or even by color. 00:00:24.430 --> 00:00:28.300 Depending on your preference, you can either sort from the Home tab, using the Sort & Filter 00:00:28.300 --> 00:00:31.350 drop-down menu. 00:00:31.350 --> 00:00:35.030 Or you can use the commands in the Data tab. 00:00:35.030 --> 00:00:40.770 In this example, I have a worksheet with a list of t-shirt orders, and I'd like to sort 00:00:40.770 --> 00:00:43.880 it alphabetically by last name. 00:00:43.880 --> 00:00:49.220 Just select any cell in the column that you want to sort… and then click the ascending 00:00:49.220 --> 00:00:53.460 command—it's the one that says AZ. 00:00:53.460 --> 00:00:57.821 You'll notice that when you sort one column, Excel also re-orders the other columns, so 00:00:57.821 --> 00:01:01.550 that each row still has the correct information. 00:01:01.550 --> 00:01:05.650 If we wanted these in reverse order, we could click the descending command (the one that 00:01:05.650 --> 00:01:08.080 says ZA). 00:01:08.080 --> 00:01:14.060 Now, this method doesn't always work if your worksheet has an unusual layout. 00:01:14.060 --> 00:01:17.560 Watch what happens when I try to sort the data here on the right. 00:01:17.560 --> 00:01:21.630 The header row is included in the sorting area by mistake. 00:01:21.630 --> 00:01:25.670 In a situation like this, you might need to manually select the cells you want, instead 00:01:25.670 --> 00:01:27.390 of relying on Excel. 00:01:27.390 --> 00:01:32.420 This is called sorting a cell range. 00:01:32.420 --> 00:01:36.410 To get started, select the range you want to sort (including the header row if you have 00:01:36.410 --> 00:01:37.899 one). 00:01:37.899 --> 00:01:43.470 Then click the Sort command… and a dialog box will appear. 00:01:43.470 --> 00:01:48.320 Use the drop-down menu on the left to choose the column you want to sort by… then select 00:01:48.320 --> 00:01:50.100 a sorting order. 00:01:50.100 --> 00:01:54.310 In this example, we'll choose Largest to Smallest. 00:01:54.310 --> 00:02:00.150 When you're done, click OK… and the range will be sorted by the selected column. 00:02:00.150 --> 00:02:04.700 Notice that the rest of the worksheet wasn't affected by the sort. 00:02:04.700 --> 00:02:08.170 Sometimes the default sorting options won't work for what you have in mind. 00:02:08.170 --> 00:02:14.970 For example, if we sort the column that contains the t-shirt sizes in ascending order… the 00:02:14.970 --> 00:02:21.020 order will be Large, Medium, Small, then X-Large because the column is being sorted alphabetically. 00:02:21.020 --> 00:02:26.430 It would be better if the sizes were listed in a more logical order—in other words, 00:02:26.430 --> 00:02:29.680 Small, Medium, Large, then X-Large. 00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:35.370 For this, we'll need to create a custom sort. 00:02:35.370 --> 00:02:38.319 To begin, click the Sort command. 00:02:38.319 --> 00:02:42.480 And on the right, you can see that it's ordering the column from A to Z. 00:02:42.480 --> 00:02:48.159 If we click this drop-down menu, and select Custom List… we can enter the t-shirt sizes 00:02:48.159 --> 00:02:50.790 in the order that we want. 00:02:50.790 --> 00:02:54.190 So I'll click the box and start typing Small… 00:02:54.190 --> 00:02:55.799 Medium… 00:02:55.799 --> 00:02:59.099 Large… and X-Large. 00:02:59.099 --> 00:03:02.269 And I'm pressing Enter after each one. 00:03:02.269 --> 00:03:05.760 Then click the Add button. 00:03:05.760 --> 00:03:09.740 Make sure that your list is selected over here on the left. 00:03:09.740 --> 00:03:16.830 Then click OK to confirm… and OK again… and now the worksheet is ordered the way that 00:03:16.830 --> 00:03:20.360 we want. 00:03:20.360 --> 00:03:24.730 The only problem with this is every other column is completely out of order. 00:03:24.730 --> 00:03:29.269 What I would really like is if the homeroom numbers were more organized within each size. 00:03:29.269 --> 00:03:33.049 I can do this by sorting multiple levels. 00:03:33.049 --> 00:03:41.780 This will let us sort first by t-shirt size, and then by homeroom. 00:03:41.780 --> 00:03:47.550 Click the Sort command… then click the button that says Add Level. 00:03:47.550 --> 00:03:52.110 Now we just have to select the Homeroom column… and we'll leave the other two fields the way 00:03:52.110 --> 00:03:56.329 they are, sorting the values from smallest to largest. 00:03:56.329 --> 00:04:01.689 When you click OK… you'll see that within each t-shirt size, the homeroom numbers are 00:04:01.689 --> 00:04:06.030 listed in numerical order. 00:04:06.030 --> 00:04:10.200 If we wanted to sort by homeroom first and then by t-shirt size, we could go back to 00:04:10.200 --> 00:04:16.370 the Sort dialog box… select one of these rows… and then use these arrows to change 00:04:16.370 --> 00:04:22.830 the order. 00:04:22.830 --> 00:04:26.940 To get the results the you want, sometimes you need to create multiple levels, or incorporate 00:04:26.940 --> 00:04:29.380 different types of custom sorting. 00:04:29.380 --> 00:04:32.190 Let's take a look at one more example. 00:04:32.190 --> 00:04:35.970 You may have noticed that some of the cells in this column are colored red, indicating 00:04:35.970 --> 00:04:38.670 that there's a problem with the student's payment. 00:04:38.670 --> 00:04:43.710 We can make sure these appear at the top if we sort the worksheet by cell formatting. 00:04:43.710 --> 00:04:47.890 To do this, click the Sort command again. 00:04:47.890 --> 00:04:51.810 I want to continue using the sorting options that we've just set up, so I'm going to add 00:04:51.810 --> 00:04:55.750 a new level for the Payment Method column. 00:04:55.750 --> 00:05:01.510 I'm also going to move it to the top of the list so that sort happens first. 00:05:01.510 --> 00:05:05.700 To sort by cell formatting, go to the drop-down menu under Sort On. 00:05:05.700 --> 00:05:13.080 Here, in addition to Values, you can choose Cell Color, Font Color, or Cell Icon. 00:05:13.080 --> 00:05:19.120 Next, make your selections in the Order field depending on what you have in mind. 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:24.330 In this example, we want all the red cells… to appear on top. 00:05:24.330 --> 00:05:27.720 When you're ready, click OK. 00:05:27.720 --> 00:05:32.950 Now we can easily see which orders still have outstanding payments. 00:05:32.950 --> 00:05:36.480 There are a lot of different ways of sorting your data, depending on how you want to organize 00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:37.480 it. 00:05:37.480 --> 00:05:41.090 So take some time to experiment with the different options to find the ones that best suit your 00:05:41.090 --> 00:05:41.580 needs.