Excel's not for records. Access is for records.

I know, I know--that ship has sailed and it's a de facto database for many people, but it's so damned broken that way I've given up on trying to fix it with shoestrings and ceiling wax.

The problem with Access is that when you open it up, as a person who jsut wants to do a mail merge, it is very confusing. Most people at my job just actually TYPE ALL THEIR MAILING LISTS DIRECTLY ONTO LABELS IN WORD and then HAND PICK THROUGH THEM TO MAIL THE ITEMS or merge to lists. So, using excel is an improvement, I think.

I am not sure I understand why it needs your cells to be all one size, or why they wouldn't be. I feel like I could probably fix it if you emailed it to me...

You can sort "by record" in Excel - just select the entire range of stuff you want sorted and use the sort function (under the Data menu).

The sort function keeps telling me that my cells have to be the same size.

OK, I don't understand what's going on here.

Beej, you probably have some merged cells in the list you're trying to sort.

Sophia do you have Word 2007? Because the mail merge for that is really very good.

I don't sumi--we only end up getting new computers/software about every 6 years!

I ended up learning enough access that it is no longer confusing to me, and now we are actually spending the money to get a database built, which is great! But a large number of people admins here really do not have the skills or the desire to take it upon themselves to be more "computer savvy", and pretty much act like a computer is a giant typewriters, so they here send me their "mailing lists" typed on labels, at which point I have to merge and sort and de-duplicate them.

Edit- I know I am spewing vitriol, but I have to do this A LOT, and I am constantly saying "at least put in in excel, even if you don't understand access"

I know, I know--that ship has sailed and it's a de facto database for many people, but it's so damned broken that way I've given up on trying to fix it with shoestrings and ceiling wax.

Le sigh.

My mac version of excel is not giving me the sort by record option. And the 'cells must be identical size' thing isn't going away. I even made all the cells the same size. No joy.

For me, doing mailmerge out of a Word table works better, actually.

Beej, you need to unmerge the cells. Then you can sort. Highlight them all, go to Format Cells, and there should be a button that has "merge cells" checked, and you need to uncheck it.

For me, doing mailmerge out of a Word table works better, actually.

I can't deal with word tables for some reason. How would that work? If I need a table in word, I usually make it in excel and import it!

I think I have a weird learning curve, though, because I learned to do anything mail mergy with Filemaker, and then moved to an environment where form letters are created by manually typing in the person's name, then hitting print. I tend to know there is a better way, but really have to persevere to figure it out. Before this job, the only Microsoft product that I used for anything was Excel.