# Really basic question about A-Z sorting in Excel



## pattyclarke (Jul 13, 2010)

I just bought a new HP computer with the Windows 7 O/S and the 2010 Microsoft Office package. (Huge learning curve for me from the ten year old system I had.) 

I do the record-keeping for a fun NASCAR pool for my friends. There are 30 columns with the players name at the top and then weekly I update the drivers picked list because you can't have duplicates. In the 2003 version I would just highlight the drivers and choose sort AtoZ and it would happen. Now when I do that I get a "Sort Warning" that says "Microsoft Excel found data next to your selection. Since you have not selected this data, it will not be sorted. What do you want to do?" The default is set at "Expand the selection" with the option of choosing "Continue with the current selection." So each time I have to select the "Continue with current selection" and then sort. It is irritating and time consuming. Is there a way I can disable this sort warning function? (No fancy formulas or anything involved.)

Thank you in advance for your help.

Patty


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

from what I think you are saying that warning is telling you that you are not sorting all the data 
for example 

```
John     Dick     Harry
1          2          3

will be sorted as follows
if the selection is not expanded 

Dick     Harry    John
1          2          3

which means you have the wrong data under each name
thats the warning excel is trying to tell you about 
to expand the selection so the result will include the numbers and you will get

Dick     Harry     John
2          3           1
```


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## WendyM (Jun 28, 2003)

Hi Patty, welcome to TSG.

My understanding of your post is that you know what the error is for, you just don't want to see it because you intend to sort just that column and not the surrounding data, is that correct? I haven't found any way to disable that message. But one option might be to record a macro by going through the sorting process (including passing through the error message) and assigning a shortcut key to it. Then the next time you have to sort, you can just use the shortcut and you won't see the message. Hope that helps.


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## pattyclarke (Jul 13, 2010)

Yes Wendy you are correct, the message is irritating and time consuming. I learned on another site that the trick to sorting just one colum and avoid the error message is to insert a blank column between the driver column! Yeah, it worked perfect.

Thanks for your help.

Patty


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