I use a pivot table in which I have some Row field columns (grouping) and
some Column field columns (data).

Row field columns (grouping):
Big Group : text
ABC : text
Article No: text starting with article number like "10/7001-20 |WG
|A|GE|AA"

Column field columns (data):
sum of open orders : integer
...

I understand I can specify in the Field Setting:Advanced:Autosort options to
sort within each "Big group", each "ABC", all "Article No" Ascending, using
field "sum of open orders".
If I do this, the sorting is done properly, according to the data column.

The other options are "Manual" and "Data source order"

The "Data source order" is not awailable and is dimmed. Why ???

And if I specify "Manual" (or dont specify any sorting) in the data column
the result is not always sorted according to the data source...
How can I ensure that within each "big group", each "ABC", all "Article No"
will be sorted alphabetically ???

I thought that if I don't specify anything, they would appear in the same
otder as in the excel database... that is already sorted top down or bottom
up...
but they are not sorted at all... Why ???

I don't get it... can anybody help ?

Thanks,
pg