How do I sort a table by last name and first name in Excel?

I have a table of business contacts that contains information such as last
name, first name, category, and company.

I would like to sort the table according to the last names, then first name,
then category, and finally company. I highlighted all the cells that have
information in them, then I used the "Sort" function in the "Data" menu. Then
I filled out the pop-up box with "sort by" - last name, "then by" - first
name, "then by" - category. Then I click "ok".

But only the "last name" column gets sorted, not the rest.

I would like to sort it by last name, first name, category, and then
company. But if I sorted each column separately, the last names don't match
with the first name and the rest of the other information.

Thank you.

Not clear what you are trying to achieve?

If you sort first by last name, the only time you will notice a sort by
first name as well, is when eg you have two or more people with the same
surname. Smith, Paul; Smith Jphn and Smith, Andy, will then sort as Smith
Andy; Smith, John and Smith Paul. Similarly, the only time that you will see
a category sort in this way, Is where you have two or more customers with the
same Last name, AND same first name, but different categories, eg if you have
3 Smith, Andy customers, they will then sort by category eg large; small;
small.

If you want to sort by Last Name, that's fine. If you then want to sort by
first name, select the entire range again, and click on Data; Sort; select
First Name. If you want to sort by Category, repeat this, but with Category
as your criteria.

If you reverse your order, and first sort by category, then by first name
and then by last name, you'll have a different result again. At least you
will be able to see that it actually sorted!

"Kubbybear18" wrote:

I have a table of business contacts that contains information such as last
name, first name, category, and company.

I would like to sort the table according to the last names, then first name,
then category, and finally company. I highlighted all the cells that have
information in them, then I used the "Sort" function in the "Data" menu. Then
I filled out the pop-up box with "sort by" - last name, "then by" - first
name, "then by" - category. Then I click "ok".

But only the "last name" column gets sorted, not the rest.

I would like to sort it by last name, first name, category, and then
company. But if I sorted each column separately, the last names don't match
with the first name and the rest of the other information.

Thank you.

Sorry, I forgot to mention. Do not sort on one column only, when selecting
only that column. Select the entire data range, say A167, and then sort by
column A, B, C or D. otherwise you will mess up yor data!

"Kubbybear18" wrote:

I have a table of business contacts that contains information such as last
name, first name, category, and company.

I would like to sort the table according to the last names, then first name,
then category, and finally company. I highlighted all the cells that have
information in them, then I used the "Sort" function in the "Data" menu. Then
I filled out the pop-up box with "sort by" - last name, "then by" - first
name, "then by" - category. Then I click "ok".

But only the "last name" column gets sorted, not the rest.

I would like to sort it by last name, first name, category, and then
company. But if I sorted each column separately, the last names don't match
with the first name and the rest of the other information.

Thank you.