Basic Sorts

To execute a basic descending or ascending sort based on one column, select the cells that will be sorted and click the Sort Ascending (A-Z) button or Sort Descending (Z-A) button on the Home tab and in the Editing group.

Complex Sorts

To sort by multiple columns, follow these steps:

• Select the Home tab and select Sort & Filter from the Editing group.
• Select Custom Sort
• In the Column column select from the drop down menu which column you would want to sort by if sorted at all.
• In the Sort On column select from Values, Cell Color, Font Color, or Cell Icons
• In the Order column select from A to Z, Z to A, or create a custom sort style
• Select Add Levels to add additional sorts and fill out the Then by fields.
  
• If the cells you highlighted included the text headings in the first row, mark the My list has...Header row option and the first row will remain at the top of the worksheet.
• Click the Options button to switch from a column sort to a row sort.
• Click OK to execute the sort.

Autofill

The Autofill feature allows you to quickly fill cells with repetitive or sequential data such as chronological dates or numbers, and repeated text.

• Type the beginning number or date of an incrementing series, or the text that will be repeated into a cell.
• Select the handle at the bottom, right-hand corner of the cell with the left mouse button and drag it down as many cells as you want to fill.
• Release the mouse button.

If you want to autofill a column with cells displaying the same number or date you must enter identical data to two adjacent cells in a column. Highlight the two cells and drag the handle of the selection with the mouse.

Alternating Text and Numbers with Autofill

The Autofill feature can also be used for alternating text or numbers. For example, to make a repeating list of the days of the week, type the seven days into seven adjacent cells in a column. Highlight the seven cells and drag down with the mouse.

Autofilling Functions

Autofill can also be used to copy functions. In the example below, column A and column B each contain lists of numbers and column C contains the sums of columns A and B for each row. The function in cell C2 would be "=SUM(A2:B2)". This function can then be copied to the remaining cells of column C by activating cell C2 and dragging the handle down to fill in the remaining cells. The autofill feature will automatically update the row numbers as shown below (if the cells are referenced relatively).