Options

Sets additional sorting options.

To access this command...

Choose Data - Sort - Options tab.

Case sensitive

Sorts first by uppercase letters and then by lowercase letters. For Asian languages, special handling applies.

For Asian languages: Check Case Sensitive to apply multi-level collation. With multi-level collation, entries are first compared in their primitive forms with their cases and diacritics ignored. If they evaluate as the same, their diacritics are taken into account for the second-level comparison. If they still evaluate as the same, their cases, character widths, and Japanese Kana difference are considered for the third-level comparison.

Range contains row/column labels

Omits the first row or the first column in the selection from the sort. The Direction setting at the bottom of the dialogue box defines the name and function of this check box.

Include formats

Preserves the current cell formatting.

Enable natural sort

Natural sort is a sort algorithm that sorts string-prefixed numbers based on the value of the numeric element in each sorted number, instead of the traditional way of sorting them as ordinary strings. For instance, let's assume you have a series of values such as, A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, ..., A19, A20, A21. When you put these values into a range of cells and run the sort, it will become A1, A11, A12, A13, ..., A19, A2, A20, A21, A3, A4, A5, ..., A9. While this sorting behaviour may make sense to those who understand the underlying sorting mechanism, to the rest of the population it seems completely bizarre, if not outright inconvenient. With the natural sort feature enabled, values such as the ones in the above example get sorted "properly", which improves the convenience of sorting operations in general.

Include boundary column(s)/row(s) containing only comments

Range boundary columns (for sorting rows) or boundary rows (for sorting columns) of a sorting range are not sorted by default if they are empty. Check this option if boundary columns or boundary rows containing comments are also to be sorted.

Include boundary column(s)/row(s) containing only images

Border columns (for sorting rows) or border rows (for sorting columns) of a sorting area are not sorted by default if they are empty. Check this option if boundary columns or boundary rows containing images are also to be sorted.

Copy sort results to:

Copies the sorted list to the cell range that you specify.

Sort results (named ranges list)

Select a named cell range where you want to display the sorted list.

Sort results (input box)

Enter the cell range where you want to display the sorted list.

Custom sort order

Click here and then select the custom sort order that you want.

Custom sort order list

Select the custom sort order that you want to apply. To define a custom sort order, choose Tools - Options - Office Calc - Sort Lists.

Language

Language

Select the language for the sorting rules.

Options

Select a sorting option for the language. For example, select the "phonebook" option for German to include the umlaut special character in the sorting.

Direction

Top to Bottom (Sort Rows)

Sorts rows by the values in the active columns of the selected range.

Left to Right (Sort Columns)

Sorts columns by the values in the active rows of the selected range.