In a previous article I wrote about the risk of sorting only some of your columns in an Excel spreadsheet.
You can obviously make a backup copy of a spreadsheet, which is never a bad idea, especially if it’s a complex document with multiple tabs. But when working with a mail merge, whether you’re using a backup copy or even just a backup tab of that data, you run the risk of version control problems.
I have seen this first hand where a client sent a spreadsheet off to the printer for a big mailing and the printer looked at the wrong tab and those names and addresses were outdated.
You can also have version control issues if you’re using a cloud server and working offline. When the cloud attempts to reconcile the differences it may not know which version of the spreadsheet is the latest.
With Google Sheets you can restore earlier versions. That is definitely a nice feature but it doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles that excel has. You can restore an unsaved version of an Excel file if your autosave is set up but that won’t always get you the result you need.
A simple way to protect a spreadsheet’s order as you edit is to add a numeric column at the far left. Use the autofill to number the rows in your spreadsheet. If you realize you have sorted badly just re-sort by the numeric column.
This will only work for one sort at a time. In other words, you need to catch your error right away.
One way to be sure you are getting everything is to zoom out. I also use yellow highlight in my header row. As I scroll right to select my columns, I know when I see the end of the yellow, I have it all.