I would like for you to post your answer to my origional question
again. If you don't have it saved, type a twenty word answer...I
figured it out from your original response so whatever you type here isn't
really important. Once you do I will
post a generous tip (both for the answer and as a tangable way of
saying I'm sorry for my comments).
 
After much effort trying to figure out how to utilize the answer I
received to solve my problem, I went to bed without the solution.
After a night of much needed sleep, I came back to this site to try
again. Expertlaw-ga had left a comment that really struck home.
 
I took all of those comments to heart. 
 
I think it is important to recall how frustrating computer problems 
can be. What seems like a simple solution, as understood by people 
familiar with a particular program or operating system, can seem like
Greek to a novice. Also, some people who want to do something directly
will not appreciate being told that the best solution is a work-around
- even when there is no direct solution. It often takes time and a 
patience for people to develop an understanding of the limitations of
a given application. In the interim, let's try to be polite. 
 
After contemplating this for several minutes I decided to try to solve
my problem again. I realized that the one piece missing from the
answer was a simple box that said (would you like to expand your
selection or would you rather continue with your current selection.
Since I was unfamiliar with what I was doing, I kept clicking
on..continue my current selection because I didn't want to mess up my
spreadsheet and more importantly because I wasn't told to do it in the
answer.
 
I apologize for my comments. Thank you for trying several times to
help solve my problem.
 
Joel

Hello again joel1357,
I must admit that I was very upset after my experience answering your
question.  In retrospect, I should have mentioned that you should
select a single cell in a column when sorting the column instead of
selecting the entire column to prevent the pop-up window to appear, as
shown in the video here: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~dhnguyen/Excel.WMV

At any rate, here is my original answer, with the clarification
incorporated into it so that it would sort alphabetically as well as
by character length:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
To sort a column by the number of character that each cell has, you
can go through this indirect route:
Suppose that the column that you want to sort is A.  Choose some
unused column.  Let's call it B.  Set the value of cell B1 to be:
=LEN(A1).  Press enter.  Then select this cell, move your mouse to the
lower-right corner of the cell and drag it down to autofill all the
cells below it.  Once all the cells are filled in, click on a cell in
column A and sort this column.  Once column A is sorted, click on a
cell in column B and sort this column.  This sorting process is known
as radix sort.
 
I hope this answered your question.  If you need clarification, please
ask for it before rating this answer and I will be happy to assist
your further.
secret901-ga
 
Search strategy: 
count character Excel 
 
Resources: 
http://cfc.state.ky.us/kipda/MSTricks/Excel/countyour.pdf
--------------------------------------------------------------

Good on ya, Joel!