Sorting numbers as Text

[David M.]

I frequently work with a lists of text data, some of which consists of digits
or digits + alpha characters. These are always formatted as tect fields.
When I sort them i get a dialog box asking if I would rather sort digits as
numbers or as text. Sorting as text provides the result I need, so I always
select that and it works fine
My question is, how can I skip having to answer this question over and over
and over? Is there a configuration option thats says 'leave me alone - I know
what I am doing' ?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Sheila D]

I've never seen the message you refer to - what version of Excel is this?
Sheila

 

[SteveW]

Not just me then

Steve

I've never seen the message you refer to - what version of Excel is this?
Sheila

 

[gls858]

I've never seen the message you refer to - what version of Excel is this?
Sheila

Excel 2003 does this. I run into this when I have product numbers that have
a leading zero. To keep the leading zero the cells must be formatted as
text and the prompt comes up whenever you try to sort the column.

gls858

 

[Sheila D]

I'm using 2003 and I can't get this message even with leading 0's as you
describe - not aware of any options I've changed either.............

 

[Dave Peterson]

Not via the user interface.

But you could record a macro that sorts the data the way you want. And never be
bother again....

 

[gls858]

I'm using 2003 and I can't get this message even with leading 0's as you
describe - not aware of any options I've changed either.............

Here's what I did. I formated cells in the column as text. Entered several
numbers then selected the column went to Data > Sort and a window pops up
that says:
The following sort key may not sort as expected because it contains some
numbers formatted as text. What would you like to do?

Sort anything that looks like number as a number
Sort number and numbers stored as text separately

Happens every time for me.

gls858