I have a pivot table with last names in the rows. The last name May appears first when I sort it alphabetically. I tried changing it in the source data to 'May (apostrophe as first character), but that didn't work. I verified the cell formatting in the source data for May was the same as the other cells for last names.

I'm guessing there's some custom sorting to put days/months first, but not sure how to turn that off.

I also tried to ask ChatGPT, but didn't get a helpful answer.

Try right clicking on a cell in the pivot table and selecting PivotTable Options, then under the "Totals & Filters" tab uncheck the box for "Use Custom Lists when sorting".

That worked for me when I created a simple table to test it.

after you sort A-Z the first time, go back into the sort button under the row labels header and perform the following:

more sort options > more options (at the bottom) > uncheck "sort automatically every time the report is updated" (at the top). make sure the first key sort order remains on "no calculation"

this isn't ideal as you will likely have to refresh then resort every time you make changes to the data but its better than nothing.

ETA: i like redfive's way better. i suspect that will avoid the issue in my suggestion of having to refresh and resort everytime

Red Five said:

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Try right clicking on a cell in the pivot table and selecting PivotTable Options, then under the "Totals & Filters" tab uncheck the box for "Use Custom Lists when sorting".

That worked for me when I created a simple table to test it.

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Thanks! That worked.