Ctrl-A does not select All and Sort not selecting all

[AndyTampa]

I'm attempting to assist a coworker. She is working with a very large spreadsheet and needs to sort the list by 3 columns. I had her put the cursor in cell A2 and select Sort. Excel 2010 highlighted columns A-E only. Her spreadsheet goes out to AF.

I had her try Ctrl-A and it only highlights the visible columns on the screen. She did find that hitting Ctrl-A a second time selects the rest of the sheet, except that it's also selecting 3 blank columns at the end. I had her delete those columns in case something was in them, but it selected them again anyway.

Is there a setting that I'm missing? I've searched this forum and Google and was unable to find anything. Or I'm not using the right words to search.

 

[Shope]

Would it be logical to write a macro to do this for you? It could be quite easy to code if so but possibly overkill.

 

[AndyTampa]

It would not be logical to write a macro that performs native functions of Excel. There must be a setting somewhere or a fix. Mine works perfectly. These are both new installations (1 month old).

 

[Shope]

Try going to the first cell of the data and hitting Ctrl + Shift + *

hth,
Shope

 

[AndyTampa]

Same problem. Excel will not select all.

 

[AndyTampa]

Thanks for your help. We got it sorted out.

There was an extra column inserted that we couldn't see. It was blank. The data from the column before it typed over and obscured the fact that there were empty cells.

 

[Shope]

Ah, Those hidden ones will get you ;]. No problem!

Shope