[Novalug] OT: sorting spreadsheet columns

[Kevin Chin]

If you had two tables side-by-side (or perhaps separated by a single blank
column) of unrelated data, would you still want all columns to be sorted the
way you describe?  I think the single column behavior is intentional,
because it's not necessarily a safe assumption that a single spreadsheet
only has one set of data in it.  Still, it might be a nice enhancement to
have a toolbar button to toggle between the two sort methods easily.

--Kc


On Wed, Jul 2, 2008 at 12:49 AM, Jim Ide <jimsmaillists at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Spreadsheets are sometimes used as quick and dirty databases,
> although they were probably not intended to be used this
> way.  Many times, I have received emails with attached
> spreadsheets containing team rosters, club members, etc.
>
> Suppose you have a spreadsheet with the columns Last Name,
> First Name, Address, etc., and you want to sort the rows
> by Last Name.  If you click the Last Name column and select
> Sort from the menu, only the Last Name column will be sorted,
> and the other columns will remain unsorted.  This often
> surprises/confuses new spreadsheet users.  If you want the
> entire row to be sorted by Last Name, you must select the
> entire range and *then* sort by Last Name.  It seems to me
> (a database guy) that row-oriented database-style sorting
> as the default behavior is more useful and intuitive than
> column-oriented sorting, but I rarely use spreadsheets
> and haven't had to solve a problem in which this behavior
> would be helpful.  I asked several persons I consider to
> be spreadsheet gurus why you would want this, and asked
> them to give me an example of when sorting just one column
> without disturbing the other columns would be useful,
> but none could come up with an answer.
>
> Any ideas?
>
>
>
>
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