Elkar

You will need to convert your data from numbers to text. Simply chaning the format of the cells to text won't affect existing data. Since it was entered as numbers, Excel will continue to treat it as numbers.

You can retype the data, which will then cause the new format to be applied. But with 1500 records, that isn't really practical. But, there is a little trick you can do with "Text to Columns" to effectively re-enter all of your numbers as text.

- Select your range of numbers
- From the Data Menu, choose "Text To Columns"
- On Step 1, choose "Delimited" then click NEXT
- On Step 2, check "Tab" then click NEXT
- On Step 3, select "Text" for the Column Data Format
- Make sure "Destination" references the same column your data is currently in (it should be this way by default)
- Click FINISH

There you have it. All of your numbers should now be text and should sort as desired.

HTH
Elkar