Feel Tips - How to Customize Excel Sorting

Even though Microsoft Excel’s ascending and descending sort options are powerful tools, sorting in Excel is a common task. However, sometimes Excel doesn’t always sort values in a familiar and meaningful way. For example, when we sort months according to alphabetically, Excel might not sort in a meaningful way. According to the image below, we randomly enter 12 months in a column. After applying an ascending sort, the column list sorts alphabetically instead of sorting by month order.

When this is the case, we need a custom sort. Fortunately, Excel offers a custom sort. In Excel 2003, just follow the steps below. 

1. Select the month names. In this case of the above image, that’s A2:A13.

2. Choose Sort from the Data menu.

3. The resulting dialog box anticipates the custom sort. The Sort By control displays Month with an Ascending sort. If you click OK, Excel will sort the selected months in alphabetic order.

4. Click the Options button at the bottom of the dialog box. 

5. In the resulting dialog box, the First Key Sort Order control displays Month. Click the dropdown arrow to display four custom sort options.

6. Choose the last option, January, February, March, and so on. By default, a custom sort isn’t case-sensitive, but there’s an option to make it so, if you need it.

7. Click OK twice and Excel sorts the months in the familiar way you expect.

In Excel 2007 and 2010, there’s a little different:

1. Click the Sort option in the Sort & Filter group. (Don’t click the A to Z or Z to A sort icons, the ones with the arrows.)

2. In the resulting Sort dialog box, click the Order control’s dropdown list and choose the appropriate custom sort.

3. Click OK.

Custom sorting in Excel, the list doesn’t have to contain all of the sort elements to work. A list of a few months can still sort by month order.