Excel 2001 deletes names on Sort

[Stan The Man]

This must be an old chestnut but I've just encountered it in Excel
2001. When sorting a list of names which include apostrophes - eg
O'Brien, O'Hara - the resulting sorted list deletes all these names.

The data was originally imported from a Word document and it looks fine
until I sort. I tried swapping the Word apostrophes for Option-Shift_]
but this didn't save all my O'Xxxx's from being deleted when sorted
alphabetically.

This is a tad alarming as I'm sorting 1000 names into a table plan for
a big banquet and some folk won't get fed at this rate! Any known
remedy for this? TIA.

Stan

 

[JE McGimpsey]

This must be an old chestnut but I've just encountered it in Excel
2001. When sorting a list of names which include apostrophes - eg
O'Brien, O'Hara - the resulting sorted list deletes all these names.

The data was originally imported from a Word document and it looks fine
until I sort. I tried swapping the Word apostrophes for Option-Shift_]
but this didn't save all my O'Xxxx's from being deleted when sorted
alphabetically.

This is a tad alarming as I'm sorting 1000 names into a table plan for
a big banquet and some folk won't get fed at this rate! Any known
remedy for this? TIA.

FWIW, I've never seen this reported before. Are you sure you don't have
macros running? (Try opening the workbook with the shift key held down
to disable macros).

Does this happen in all workbooks, or just one?

The Sort method should never delete anything. Unfortunately, I'm not on
a machine with XL01, so I can't check directly, but it certainly doesn't
happen in XLv.X or XL04.

 

[Stan The Man]

This must be an old chestnut but I've just encountered it in Excel
2001. When sorting a list of names which include apostrophes - eg
O'Brien, O'Hara - the resulting sorted list deletes all these names.

The data was originally imported from a Word document and it looks fine
until I sort. I tried swapping the Word apostrophes for Option-Shift_]
but this didn't save all my O'Xxxx's from being deleted when sorted
alphabetically.

This is a tad alarming as I'm sorting 1000 names into a table plan for
a big banquet and some folk won't get fed at this rate! Any known
remedy for this? TIA.

FWIW, I've never seen this reported before. Are you sure you don't have
macros running? (Try opening the workbook with the shift key held down
to disable macros).

Does this happen in all workbooks, or just one?

The Sort method should never delete anything. Unfortunately, I'm not on
a machine with XL01, so I can't check directly, but it certainly doesn't
happen in XLv.X or XL04.

I didn't give enough information - this bug seems to surface only after
a worksheet has been copied into the same document. I can sort the
original list without problem but the new copied worksheet exhibits
this bug every time - even with macros disabled.

Stan

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I didn't give enough information - this bug seems to surface only after
a worksheet has been copied into the same document. I can sort the
original list without problem but the new copied worksheet exhibits
this bug every time - even with macros disabled.

That makes it sound like there's corruption in the workbook, but I can't
for the life of me figure out what kind of corruption would cause items
to be deleted.

Try copying your original data to a new workbook (via CMD-c, CMD-v) and
see whether the problem persists.

 

[Stan The Man]

That makes it sound like there's corruption in the workbook, but I can't
for the life of me figure out what kind of corruption would cause items
to be deleted.

Try copying your original data to a new workbook (via CMD-c, CMD-v) and
see whether the problem persists.

Tried that: the data copies fine via Cmd-c but the problem is still
there. To be precise, after pasting the data into the new workbook, I
use the Move or Copy Worksheet command to duplicate the sheet; then,
when I sort the new copy alphabetically, all surnames with an
apostrophe in have been erased.

Stan

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Tried that: the data copies fine via Cmd-c but the problem is still
there. To be precise, after pasting the data into the new workbook, I
use the Move or Copy Worksheet command to duplicate the sheet; then,
when I sort the new copy alphabetically, all surnames with an
apostrophe in have been erased.

Hmm... AFAICT, you're in the twilight zone.

There's really *nothing* within XL that can cause this. There *must* be
something external - either a macro, an add-in, or a haxie. But since
you're still in OS9/Classic, I don't know where to suggest to look,
other than the XL startup folder.

There's absolutely nothing special about the apostrophe that would cause
the change when a worksheet is copied.

Can you reproduce this from absolute scratch?

0) Move, rename, or trash your XL preferences.
1) Start XL with the shift key down.
2) Enter some random data, including names with apostrophes
3) Sort the sheet to verify it works. Undo.
4) Copy the sheet using Move or Copy
5) Sort again...

I don't expect it will help, but you could always try removing Office
(including Preferences) and reinstalling...

 

[Stan The Man]

Hmm... AFAICT, you're in the twilight zone.

There's really *nothing* within XL that can cause this. There *must* be
something external - either a macro, an add-in, or a haxie. But since
you're still in OS9/Classic, I don't know where to suggest to look,
other than the XL startup folder.

There's absolutely nothing special about the apostrophe that would cause
the change when a worksheet is copied.

Can you reproduce this from absolute scratch?

0) Move, rename, or trash your XL preferences.
1) Start XL with the shift key down.
2) Enter some random data, including names with apostrophes
3) Sort the sheet to verify it works. Undo.
4) Copy the sheet using Move or Copy
5) Sort again...

Did that and still no cure.

I don't expect it will help, but you could always try removing Office
(including Preferences) and reinstalling...

Didn't do that but I've decided just to live with it for a few days as
this is the last Excel job I will be doing under Os9. Thanks for your
help. Maybe no-one else is still using 2001....

Stan

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Maybe no-one else is still using 2001....

Oh, there are plenty of people still using XL01. However, I suspect most
of those folks aren't seeing new problems, so they don't hang out here
as often.