Formatting information such as cell color is stored as part of the data of a cell. When you sort a range of cells, therefore, the style information will be moved with the data.
On spreadsheets formatted with alternating colors, however, this can destroy the look of the spreadsheet.
Currently, there is no way to prevent this from happening but, by following the next few steps, you can obtain the same affect.
1. Select the range of data you wish to sort and choose Copy from the Edit menu.
2. Select New from the File menu and create a new Spreadsheet document. This document will only be used temporarily so you can close it without saving after you have finished.
3. Select Paste from the Edit menu to paste the data into the new spreadsheet. The style information will also be pasted.
4. Select the range of data you wish to sort, select Sort from the Calculate menu and sort the data as desired. The formatting information at this point will appear incorrect - disregard its initial appearance.
5. Select all the data again and choose Copy from the Edit menu.
6. From the View menu, select the original database.
7. With the same range of data selected in the original database, choose Paste Special from the Edit menu, select the option to Paste Values Only and click OK.
The data will be pasted into the original database in the new order but without the formatting information.
NOTE: The Paste Special feature is primarily intended to remove calculated results from their formula. If the sorted data was derived by calculations, therefore, the formulas will be removed. Solutions to this problem depend greatly on the design of the database. In most cases, you do not need to include calculated cells in the pasted information since they will be recalculated based on the new data.