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The sorting features of Gobe Productive can order large selections of data in
alphabetical or numeric order. Fundamentally, there are two types of sorts: vertical
and horizontal.
In a vertical sort, each row is kept together and sorted "up and down."
Consider the following example.

In this sort, column A is the key. The program sorts each row based on the
key. You can have up to three keys.
Notice in the result (below) how the rows remain intact, but are sorted
based on the contents of column A.

In a horizontal sort, each column is kept together and sorted "side
by side." Consider the following example.

In this sort, row A is the key. The program sorts each column based on the key.
You can have up to three keys.
Notice in the result (below) that the information is sorted based on the contents of
row A, but the columns remain intact.

When sorting, the program can perform analysis on more than one range of cells.
For example, you have a large block of data sorted by date. However, many of the
records have the same date. To make the data more comprehensible, you can identify a
second sort criteria to sort the records within a given range of dates. For
example, you can sort all the records first by date and then by last name. Gobe
Productive provides three levels of sorting using 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Order Keys. All
sort commands must have at least a 1st Order Key.
- Select the cells you want to sort. Only the cells you select are sorted. If
you have a large block of related information, make sure to select the entire block of
data. Selecting and sorting a portion of a related block of cells can break the
relationships between those cells.
- Select Sort Cells... from the Options menu. The
Sort Cells dialog box is displayed.
- The sort range is automatically placed in the Range field.
However, you may use this field to alter the sort range. As mentioned before,
sorting only a portion of a related block of cells can break the relationships between
those cells.
- Enter the range of cells for the 1st Order Key in the appropriate
Address field. The program uses this range as the primary sorting range when
ordering the cells. If you are performing a vertical sort, make sure to identify a
range of vertical cells. Likewise, horizontal sorts should use a horizontal range of
cells for the 1st Order Key.
- Select the sorting direction. Use the Ascending and Descending
options in the 1st Order Key box.
- If you have a particularly complex series of data, use the 2nd Order Key
and 3rd Order Key boxes to identify sub-ranges for sorting.
As mentioned in the previous step, it is a good idea to identify vertical ranges for
vertical sorts and horizontal ranges for horizontal sorts.
- Select the sort Direction. As mentioned above, a vertical sort
keeps all selected rows together while a horizontal sort keeps all selected columns
together.
- When finished, click OK. The selected cells are sorted.

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