Alphabetizing

[pkelly2505]

I often manipulate grades in Excel. If I sort the columns by score then work on the grades there is no way to get them back into the original order since in Canvas the names are alphabetized by last name, but are given first-name first. The names should either be given last-name-first or with first and last names in different columns. This is more of a comment than a question, but I just had Canvas repeatedly crash when I clicked on "ask a question"

[Ron_Bowman]

@pkelly2505 

I know this is 3 years old, but looking at the tail end of unanswered questions (surprised no one answered this one), I found your question.

The solution is probably not relevant to you anymore, but for anyone searching, the following is what I would do:

Export the gradebook.  in the csv version of the gradebook, keep the first 5 columns or so - this is all the student information and id numbers (you will know which columns to keep).  Then I would delete all the assignment columns and score columns except for the assignment columns I want to manipulate.

Then sort the entire spreadsheet based of the assignment column you want to work with (if there is one assignment in column 6 and the first 5 columns have the student information, highlight all 6 columns and sort on column 6).  change the numbers - modify them or what ever.  once you are done manipulating the grades, just import the csv file back into canvas - the order of the students does not matter - you just have to keep all of the identification information in the first 5 columns or so.  

Ron