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Data has numbers and numbers with letters - how do I sort so that they are actually in order and not all numbers and then all numbers with letters. For example I have color numbers 18 & 18F. When I sort I get 18, 19 , etc and then after all the numbers I get 18F. Why can't I get 18, 18F, 19. I have everything formatted as text but I'va also tried this as formatted general.
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Select the range.
On the Home tab of the ribbon, select Sort & Filter > Custom Sort...
Specify whether the data has headers etc., then click OK.
You should get a Sort Warning:
Select the second option, then click OK.
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Yes, if you enter a number and only format it as Text afterwards, Excel somehow remembers that it started out as a number.
As an alternative, you can prefix numbers with an apostrophe ', even after you entered them. The apostrophe forces Excel to treat the value as text.
Figured out that you need the cells formatted as text before you enter the data for this to work.
When I tried typing everything in then formatting cells and then sorting as you said it did not worlk.
Thanks for your help.