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Sort & Filter 'greyed' out

Anonymous
2012-03-21T14:39:57+00:00

I was sent an excel file, and I have updated some data, and now want to resort in alphabetical order. However, each time I either highlight the entire table or some specific rows, the "Sort & Filter" button on the "Editing tab" on Ribbon is greyed out, and I cannot sort.

Is there a way to fix this, as I need to alphabetize this report.

I just don't know how to correct.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

T

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-03-22T02:50:27+00:00

    Does this issue occur only with this file or all Excel files?

    Verify if the worksheet is protected, if so unprotect, Open the file > Click on Review > Unprotect sheet.

    If the sheet is not protected then verify if the sheets are grouped, if you see [Group] after the name of the workbook in the title bar, more than one sheet has been selected, and anything you enter will be entered in all sheets.

    Right click on a sheet tab and select 'Ungroup Sheets' from the context menu

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-09-05T18:57:53+00:00

    I just had this problem myself, and here's what I discovered for my particular problem (relates to Excel 2010 in my case): the file had been sent to me with a portion of the worksheet having table formatting applied to it.  If I selected only within the area that had been formatted with Table formatting, or only outside of it, I was OK to filter.  Select anything both inside and outside the table-formatted area?  No more Filter (and many other Data ribbon functions as well).

    To confirm if this is your issue, look at the ribbon when you select insidethe area where you are able to filter.  You should see the Table Tools ribbon appear (a Design tab should be underneath it).  Click in an area of the spreadsheet where you selected and noticed the issue of the Filter function graying out, and the Table Tools ribbon should disappear.

    If this is the case, I fixed it by clicking within the table-formatted area, going to the Table Tools ribbon (under the Design tab) and clicking Convert to Range.  A dialog box asking if you want to convert the table to a normal range will pop up; click Yes.  You may see a slight difference in your worksheet, but after this, you should be able to select any columns you want and filter them all.

    -K

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-03-22T17:07:18+00:00

    This only occurs with a particular Excel File. I checked and the Spreadsheet was not protected nor grouped.

    Thanks for the idea.

    Instead of selecting the entire worksheets or selecting the columns; I ended up selecting the section A1:X325, and then was able to sort.

    Strange that the sort function 'greys out' when I choose a column, but not when I choose a section of the column.

    I am good now.

    Thanks.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-01-15T09:54:58+00:00

    Alternate SOLUTION

    Reason

    The sort was disabled because of mixture of "format as Table" and normal space

    Solution

    Convert all the data as "Format as Table"

    1. Design Tab
    2. Left most side, last option: "Re-size table"

    3. Select the new range - include the normal space to be a part of formatted table- and part of sorting

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-07-04T09:20:56+00:00

    Also try clicking on the Data tab and looking at connections. I had exported a spreadsheet from SharePoint and could not filter or sort until I removed the connection that seemed to link the datasheet to itself...

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