sorting groups of data without changing the data within the groups

[ChipW]

Hi,
I hope someone might be able to help me.

I am trying to sort entire groups by one cell in each group.
I can't figure out how to maintain the integrity of the groups.

At first I set up my data into groups using the Groups feature of Excel, but the sort function does not operate on whole, complete groups.
So I removed the groups outlines.
I would like to sort the groups based on data on every 9th row, first column, in alphabetical order.

Currently I have something like 40 or more of these "data groups", and it will continue to get larger.
It's all text.

I have tried to use MS Word, but don't see a way to do it there as well, and the random and inconsistent self-formatting that Word does drives me nuts.

Is there a way to sort the groups while maintaining the integrity of the groups? Or would I be better off doing this in Access? I imported the raw data into Access, but again, do not see how to sort groups of data by one field in each group. If necessary, I could use Access for the sorting procedure then send the data back to Excel for formatting for Documents To Go. Whatever is easiest.

My goal is to have an alphabetical list of groups of text data that will be in .xls format so I can read it on my old Blackberry in the Documents To Go app.(hmm, it appears that Access files are not viewable in Documents To Go.)

The attached example.xlsx has two of the complete groups. The file will continue to get large, perhaps as many as 100 or more of these groups of text data.

The format of the groups is this:
1A-1F merged for group header (this is the column I want the groups of data sorted by - the first word in this cell is the sort key)
2A empty, 2b-2f column headers
3A-7A row headers
3b,4b,5b,6b,7b - 3f,4f,5f,6f,7f text data
8a empty, 8b-8c merged for text, 8d-8e merged for text, 8f empty
9a through 16f are a repeat of the above format with different text data and header text data
repeat for another 9 rows, ad nauseum.

Thanks for any help you can provide.
--
Chip

[daffodil11]

Perhaps with this bit of code, which could be adapted to your spreadsheet:

To run the macro, hit alt+F8.

Please Login or Register  to view this content.

[ChipW]

Thanks for the code, I did get it to work without errors, but nothing is changed in the results. The order of the data groups is the same after running the script.

[daffodil11]

There are three tabs. There reorder appears on the third tab. It could be adapted to kill the first tab and replace it with the results after the run.

The code pulls the infinitive headers, sorts them, and then pulls each block and pastes them in that order to the End tab.

[ChipW]

Yes, I know about the 3 tabs, I had to name the two new tabs as they didn't exist previously. The results in the third tab are the same as the original data in the first tab after running the script.