Greetings,

We use Excel 2003 and sometimes have a need to sort data that includes
figure references with the section and figure indicators in one column
(Section B, Figure 1 would be "B-1" in that cell).

When we sort, however, we find that figure B-10 will come before B-2. We
understand that Excel is sorting in such a way that it's not 'ten', it's
'one-zero' which comes before two.

We've tried using different cell formatting (General, Number, even Custom)
to no avail, though some of the formats in "Custom" appeared intriguing.

Is there a way to format the cells and/or change sort properties so that a
"B-10" is seen as 'more' than "B-2" so that "B-2" shows up before "B-10"??

Thanks,

Solon