Multi-row headers and excel 2007 sort/filtering

Question

I have a spreadsheet which uses 2 rows for header information. Filtering implicitly is assuming only 1 row of header information. Sorting has a header row checkbox but that only toggles treating the first row as a header.

Is there a way to make excel treat the first two rows as headers?

Answer 1

No. Omit the first row from your range when you auto filter. This way the auto filter buttons appear only on your bottom header row and the data gets filtered. I expect that right now your second header row is getting pulled into your 'data'.

You can't select a single cell and have excel figure this out. You have to select the range of cells you want excel to include.

Answer 2

Excel 2007 can smartly detect if you have multi-row headers. I made a simple experiment just now before writing this.

Before making your first sort, position the cursor right below the header. That's it! Sorting is fine, filtering is fine. Excel ignored the 1st row of my headers. It just processes the 2nd row as the real header.

Answer 3

Or you could just merge the two header rows.