Sorting reorders whole rows, so each row's values stay together. Click one cell in the column you want to sort by, and Excel finds the rest of the table around it.
- Data > Sort A to Z (Alt, A, S, A) and Sort Z to A (Alt, A, S, D) sort by the active cell's column. For numbers the buttons mean smallest first and largest first; for dates, oldest first and newest first.
- Data > Sort (Alt, A, S, S) opens the Sort dialog for several levels: Depot A to Z, then Cost largest first within each depot.
Excel guesses whether the top row is a header (bold, or text above numbers) and leaves it in place; the dialog's My data has headers box shows the guess. Blank cells always go to the bottom.
Don't select a single column before sorting: that sorts the column alone and mixes up the rows.