Gobe Productive User's Guide - Sorting Cells

- Working in the spreadsheet environment
- Formatting cells
- Row & column sizes
- Number formats
- Insert, Delete, Move & Go to Cells
- Locking cells
- Filling cells
- Sorting cells
- Calculating cells & Dependent cells
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# Sorting Cells

Vertical Sorting | Horizontal Sorting | 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Order Keys | To Sort a Range of Cells

The sorting features of Gobe Productive can order large selections of data in alphabetical or numeric order. Fundamentally, there are two types of sorts: vertical and horizontal.

## Vertical Sorting

In a vertical sort, each row is kept together and sorted "up and down." Consider the following example.

In this sort, column A is the key. The program sorts each row based on the key. You can have up to three keys.

Notice in the result (below) how the rows remain intact, but are sorted based on the contents of column A.

## Horizontal Sorting

In a horizontal sort, each column is kept together and sorted "side by side." Consider the following example.

In this sort, row A is the key. The program sorts each column based on the key. You can have up to three keys.

Notice in the result (below) that the information is sorted based on the contents of row A, but the columns remain intact.

## 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Order Keys

When sorting, the program can perform analysis on more than one range of cells. For example, you have a large block of data sorted by date. However, many of the records have the same date. To make the data more comprehensible, you can identify a second sort criteria to sort the records within a given range of dates. For example, you can sort all the records first by date and then by last name. Gobe Productive provides three levels of sorting using 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Order Keys. All sort commands must have at least a 1st Order Key.

## To Sort a Range of Cells

1. Select the cells you want to sort. Only the cells you select are sorted. If you have a large block of related information, make sure to select the entire block of data. Selecting and sorting a portion of a related block of cells can break the relationships between those cells.
2. Select Sort Cells... from the Options menu. The Sort Cells dialog box is displayed.
3. The sort range is automatically placed in the Range field. However, you may use this field to alter the sort range. As mentioned before, sorting only a portion of a related block of cells can break the relationships between those cells.
4. Enter the range of cells for the 1st Order Key in the appropriate Address field. The program uses this range as the primary sorting range when ordering the cells. If you are performing a vertical sort, make sure to identify a range of vertical cells. Likewise, horizontal sorts should use a horizontal range of cells for the 1st Order Key.
5. Select the sorting direction. Use the Ascending and Descending options in the 1st Order Key box.
6. If you have a particularly complex series of data, use the 2nd Order Key and 3rd Order Key boxes to identify sub-ranges for sorting. As mentioned in the previous step, it is a good idea to identify vertical ranges for vertical sorts and horizontal ranges for horizontal sorts.
7. Select the sort Direction. As mentioned above, a vertical sort keeps all selected rows together while a horizontal sort keeps all selected columns together.
8. When finished, click OK. The selected cells are sorted.

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