"Skip Gundlach"
.due.to.spam wrote in
message ink.net...

big snip

I don't know how to sort my entries (being 4 lines,
including a blank separator between entries) in Excel, so I did my sorting
in Word (the file was far too large for notepad, where I originally
started
the construction!). I still kept the largest first, but went to each
market

There are several ways to do this. The easiest is to number each dataset in
column A (so that you'd have four lines numbered 1, then four numbered 2,
etc.) then in column B, the individual lines numbered 1,2,3,4. Then put the
different sort keys on all four rows of each dataset in columns C,D,E... as
required. So, column C could have the length in all four rows, column D the
location, and so forth. This means you have a little redundant data, but
you can use the Excel sort or data functions easily. For example, to get a
list in location order, sort on D,A,B which first sorts location, then puts
all of boat number ten together, then sorts the four lines of each boat into
order.

Refinements would include using a decimal number (boat number sixteen would
have in its four rows in column A: 16.1,16.2,16.3 and 16.4, which would
allow you to have only one column for the number.
Then, if A was the number, B the length, and C the location, sorting C.B,A
would give you a listed sorted by location, then length.

Another way, is to have two worksheets (in the same workbook). On the first
(call it "Main"), have all the data for each boat on one line -- this may be
unreadable, but it's easy to sort. On the second (call it "LookHere"),
organize the lines in a readable fashion. However many lines per boat you
want. When you re-sort "Main", the "LookHere" references are to the same
cell as before the sort, so that "LookHere" shows the data in the new order.
(a cell in LookHere that has +Main!A1 in it, will always show the column A
data for the first row in Main) Although this is a little harder to set up,
it has the advantage that you can sort on any column.


--
Jim Woodward
www.mvFintry.com


..