Sort Left to Right
July 31, 2017 - by Bill Jelen
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Excel can sort left to right
Every day, your IT department sends you a file with the columns in the wrong sequence. It would take them two minutes to change the query, but they have a six-month backlog, so you are stuck rearranging the columns every day.
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You can reorder the columns with a left-to-right sort.
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Add a new row above the data. Type numbers to represent the correct sequence for the columns.
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Select Data, Sort. In the Sort dialog, click the Options... button and choose Sort Left to Right. Click OK.
Sort Options -
Specify Row 1 in the Sort By dropdown. Click OK.
Sort by Row 1
The problem: The column widths do not travel with the columns.
But it is easy to select the data and Press Alt + O, C, A or select Home, Format, Column, AutoFit.
Bonus
Another Way to Move columns
Select one cell in the column you want to move. (You can also do this with multiple columns.)
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Press Ctrl + Spacebar to select the whole column.
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Shift + Drag the edge of the selection to a new location. The columns move and get inserted where you drop them. The remaining data shifts over.
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Tip
If you need to move rows, press Shift + Spacebar to select the whole row. Follow with Shift + Drag.
Watch Video
- Excel can sort left to right
- Insert a row with the correct column sequence
- Use the Sort dialog
- Click Options, then Sort Left to Right
- Also note this dialog offers case-sensitive sorting
- Column widths do not correct, but Alt + O C A will fix
- Bonus tip with Shift + Spacebar and Ctrl + Spacebar
- How to remember which is which?
- Ctrl starts with C, just like Column
- Shift key is wider than Ctrl key, just as a row is wider than a column
- Once you select the entire row or column, Shift + Drag it into location
Download File
Download the sample file here: Podcast1993.xlsx
Title Photo: Fruchthandel_Magazin / pixabay