Excel Lesson 9

Use the Start menu to start Excel.

Open the file DIRECTORY1.xls.

We are going to learn how to get Excel to SORT, or put data into alphabetical or numeric order.

Let’s sort the students into alphabetical order by last name.

The first thing to do is to HIGHLIGHT ALL the cells that have data in them. This means everything in ROWS 2,3,4 and 5 (not 1!), and columns A through N. You may have to practice this.

Once you have all the cells highlighted, go to the DATA menu, and choose SORT.

A box will come up which will let you tell Excel how to SORT.

Underneath ‘Sort by’, there will be a column and a letter. What column do you think we want to sort by?

Since we want to sort by last name, and last names are in column B, we want Column B.

If a different column appears in the box, click on the down arrow next to the column, and then click on Column B in the list of columns that appears.

Skip the next two boxes, and look under “My list has”.

Make sure “no header row” has the circle next to it filled in. (If it doesn’t, click on it!)

This tells Excel that you don’t have column headings.

Now click on the OK button.

Check your last names in column B. Are they in alphabetical order?

Save your work, and open DIRECTORY2.xls.

Let’s sort DIRECTORY2 by the students’ last names. You may have to practice to HIGHLIGHT ALL the data. This time, include the first row- the column headings- in the highlight.

Now, choose DATA and SORT.

Make sure the first box has STUDENT LAST NAME in it.

Under ‘My list has’, HEADER ROW should be selected (you have column headings!)

Click OK.

Are the students in alphabetical order by last name?

Let’s try sorting the data a different way. Highlight ALL the data again.

This time choose GRADE as what you are going to sort by, and click OK.

Are the students in a different order?

Now, let’s try something different. Let’s sort the students by grade first, and then by last name. This will give us students in alphabetical order FOR EACH GRADE.

Highlight all the data, and choose DATA and SORT.

In the first box under ‘Sort by’, make sure GRADE is selected.

In the SECOND box under ‘Sort by’, select STUDENT LAST NAME. Click OK.

Look at your first two columns. Can you describe what you did this time?

Save your work and exit from Excel.