Disabling sort functions also disable grouping

[DEluis2021]

Dear all, I have a sheet containing row entries grouped by section, for example 1 grouped with 1.1 and 1.1.1.

If someone by mistake (i.e. me) used the A-Z or 0-9 sort function the whole sheet will be compromised and 1.1.1 could find itself nested under 1.4, for example.

I would like to disable the sort function, while keeping the text filters available. For this I can use the protect sheet function which disables Sorting, but once this is set the + and - group buttons are not available anymore. I would prefer a non-VBA method of allowing all users to expand/collapse grouped columns while disabling accidental sorting.

Thank you for your input.

[#2]

I detest merged cells, but this is an area where they actually may help. Add a narrow column somewhere and merge all cells along the height of your table in that column. Now try sorting.