Turn on the Advanced Toolbar and use the Group By box, Field Chooser and
play around with ways of viewing your Contacts.  Phone List view gives you a
basic table and is thus a good starting point.

I think you're in By Category View and from your description have 2003 with
the Arrange by... Show in Groups turned on.  So what happens is that when
you click a column header to sort by it, 2003 in fact Groups By that column
( what you described as "moving them up one at a time").

If you have 2003, turn off the View | Arrange by .. | Show in Groups setting
and you may be much happier with what you see when you sort a column.

PLEASE at least post your version when you have a question.

Judy Gleeson  - MVP Outlook
Acorn Training and Consulting
Canberra, Australia

see what Outlook training can do to improve productivity:
www.acorntraining.com.au/pdfdocs/ProductivITwithOutlook.pps

www.acorntraining.com.au/productivit.htm

Check this out:
1. http://alphabet.4team.biz/ (Alphabet Tabs with Smart filters for
your Microsoft® Outlook® Contacts folder.)
2. http://tabview.4team.biz/ (arch and organize e-mails, tasks,
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