unknown - maybe grouping

I have a spreadsheet forwarded to me asking how they did something - I have
no clue. I will try my best to explain it.

on the side of this spread sheet there are the numbers going down. but on
the left of that there is another boarder with two boxes way on top one had
1 the other has 2 - undre that next to the numbers of the spreadsheet are
dots or bullets. then on the left of that is a black line that is grouping a
certain number of items with a - box under it so if you click on the - it
then hides the information in the spreadsheet and then there is an +

I was wondering what you call that and how it is done.

I tried to print screen and attach it but it wouldn't let me - I can email
it to anybody that would like to see what I am talking about.

One other question this person asked me is - Can you sort by last name if
the last name isn't first in the cell. I said no - but on this same
spreadsheet it is sorted by last name and the first name is first in the
cell. I told her they must of had it in order when they entered the info! Is
that a correct answer?

thanks

I can't answer your first question, but I may be able to offer some light on
the second. If the lastnames are held in another column as well, they could
be sorted on that and the column hidden.
--
Ian
--
"Shanny" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I have a spreadsheet forwarded to me asking how they did something - I have
> no clue. I will try my best to explain it.
>
> on the side of this spread sheet there are the numbers going down. but on
> the left of that there is another boarder with two boxes way on top one
> had
> 1 the other has 2 - undre that next to the numbers of the spreadsheet are
> dots or bullets. then on the left of that is a black line that is
> grouping a
> certain number of items with a - box under it so if you click on the - it
> then hides the information in the spreadsheet and then there is an +
>
> I was wondering what you call that and how it is done.
>
> I tried to print screen and attach it but it wouldn't let me - I can email
> it to anybody that would like to see what I am talking about.
>
> One other question this person asked me is - Can you sort by last name if
> the last name isn't first in the cell. I said no - but on this same
> spreadsheet it is sorted by last name and the first name is first in the
> cell. I told her they must of had it in order when they entered the info!
> Is
> that a correct answer?
>
> thanks

What you're describing sounds like Outlining (look that up in Excel Help).

With Outlining you can expand and collapse contiguous groups of rows or
columns by clicking those buttons. You can also group within groups. For
example, you could group all of the January rows into a January total,
February into a February total, etc. You could then group all of the months
of 2004 together, then 2005, etc.


Does that help?

***********
Regards,
Ron

XL2002, WinXP-Pro


"Shanny" wrote:

> I have a spreadsheet forwarded to me asking how they did something - I have
> no clue. I will try my best to explain it.
>
> on the side of this spread sheet there are the numbers going down. but on
> the left of that there is another boarder with two boxes way on top one had
> 1 the other has 2 - undre that next to the numbers of the spreadsheet are
> dots or bullets. then on the left of that is a black line that is grouping a
> certain number of items with a - box under it so if you click on the - it
> then hides the information in the spreadsheet and then there is an +
>
> I was wondering what you call that and how it is done.
>
> I tried to print screen and attach it but it wouldn't let me - I can email
> it to anybody that would like to see what I am talking about.
>
> One other question this person asked me is - Can you sort by last name if
> the last name isn't first in the cell. I said no - but on this same
> spreadsheet it is sorted by last name and the first name is first in the
> cell. I told her they must of had it in order when they entered the info! Is
> that a correct answer?
>
> thanks