We will explain how to alphabetize in excel, or only order a selection of cells that you have decided. The data is the fundamental basis of the spreadsheets, so after having introduced them it is important to have the ability to reorganize them to your liking.

The good news is that Excel is an application that will take into account the context of the selection you want to organize. It will distinguish between columns with words or numbers to propose an alphabetical order or from highest to lowest. It also detects if there are more cells next to the selection that could be influenced by the reorganization in case you want to move them too.

How to alphabetize in excel?

The first thing you have to do is select the column items you want to sort. To do this, it will be enough to click on the first one. And without releasing the mouse button up or down. And select the rest of the cells you want to include in the selection. Check also: Remove Password From Excel

You can also select from a click a whole row or column of cells, although be careful because if the first cell belongs to the title it will also be sorted next to the rest. The way to do this is to click on the number of the row. Or the letter of the column to select all the cells in them.

Next step

You have to click on the Sort and filter option that is within the Edit category of the top options bar, under the Start tab. Pressing will display a window in which you can choose how to alphabetize in excel you have selected.

Excel will detect the content in the cells. If he sees that there are words with letters. It will propose you to order them from A to Z or from Z to A. But if he sees that there are numbers. It will propose you order from greater to lesser or from lesser to greater. How do you want to sort the selected cells?

Here comes the most important part of the process, and it is that Excel will detect. If there is data in other cells next to the ones you have selected. It will propose you to expand the selection in case you want this data to be ordered as well. You have two different options, and this is what each of them does:

Expand the selection: It will make the cells that have data that may be related to the ones you are going to order are ordered as well. Look at the example, next to each name there is a number. So if you choose this selection the numbers will be organized to remain next to the name they now have next to them.

Continue with the current selection: Only the cells you have selected will be sorted. If there is another column next to it with related data. This data will not be organized and will remain as it was.

Once chosen if you want to expand the selection or do not click on Sort. And the column or row of Excel will be sorted as you have chosen. In this capture, you can see that we have opted for the option to Expand the selection. So the column that was next to the numbers has also been sorted.