> >> > -----Original Message----- >> > I have a text list of my DVD collection in MS Excel. >> > I would like to sort them alphabetically - easy enough, >> > except for movies that start with " The " or "A" >> > >>snipped for brevity The easiest method is to insert a new column for sort purposes only. If you put this in column A, and the titles are in column B, then row 1 should be column header titles, SORT_VALUE for A and MOVIE_TITLE for B, and the dvd names start in row 2. Then, cell A2 should have the formula =IF(OR(LEFT(B2,2)="a ",LEFT(B2,4)="the "),MID(B2,SEARCH(" ",B2)+1,200)&", "&left(B2,SEARCH(" ",B2)-1),B2) Copy the formula down for every row of movie titles. OR returns true if either "a " or "the " starts the title, the test is case insensitive. The SEARCH allows you to handle skipping two chars for "A " and 4 for "The ". Sort the table. Hope you haven't gone to the trouble of retyping yet! Tom Curious about the people moderating your messages? Visit our staff web site: http://freepctech.com/staff.shtml