How do I lock rows for sorting names and addresses? Need to sort but keep row cells together. This is NOT FREEZING cells, however.

Question

How do I lock rows for sorting names and addresses? Need to sort but keep row cells together. This is NOT FREEZING cells, however.

Anonymous

NOT FREEZING cells, just locking rows, so all the cells in that row, name, address, city, state, zip will stay intact. Also, I'M ON A MAC. Thanks!

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Answer accepted by question author

3 additional answers

Answer 1

If you select a single cell within a contiguous region and sort, Excel will keep the cells within a row in that region together.

In the screenshot below, the active cell is in the contiguous range on the right, outlined in green. The rows of that range will stay together when you sort. The range on the left, outlined in red, will not be sorted with the range on the right, so any connection between the two ranges will be lost.

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But if you select the entire range, as in the screenshot below, the cells within a row in the selection will stay together: the rows will be sorted as a whole.

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By default, Excel will try to guess whether the top rows of the range to be sorted are header rows based on the contents and formatting. In the example below, the top 2 rows will be treated as headers because of their formatting, so they won't be sorted with the rest, and remain at the top.

If you want to override this behavior, select Sort & Filter > Custom Sort... on the Home tab of the ribbon.