Who knew how many different ways there are to sort?

Let’s talk about changing the Sort Option Orientation.

Typically you don’t have to change the orientation of sorting as the default works just fine. However, everyone in awhile, you have that one spreadsheet that has a mind of its own.
I have a sales report that is generated every month and the columns are never in the correct order. So, I would cut and paste every month to get everything to display the way I wanted, however, it was  very time-consuming and annoying.

Below are the steps to do this in a more efficient manner and forget all about that cutting and pasting.

Insert a column above your column headings and number them in the sequence you want them to appear.
Then select Data>Sort.
In the Sort Dialog box click Options and select Sort left to right.
Voila- your columns are sorted in the way you want them and it took you all of 30 seconds.

sort left to right

The default order is Smallest to largest.

Notice that you can also sort by Case Sensitivity as well.

This is a tip from my Must Know Excel Tips Tricks and Tools for CPAs course.