"Frames" around cells or groups pf cells

Hi,
Very, very new to Calc (ex, Excel) and I’m trying to find:
1 >> Where in Calc I can add a line, light or heavey around a cell or groups of cells.
2 > I just did a sort on an imported spreadsheet (now in .ods) which didn’t work as in Excel!?
Overview: This is my Home account sheet where the first two columns are A=Date of transaction and B=Date on which the bank debits/credits this transaction. Formulas use these dates along with the amount in the corresponding credit or debits columns to calculate my balance according to me in one column and in another the balance once the bank has debited or credited the transaction.
Exemple: When I first register a transaction in column A, the column B is of course empty until I see, sometimes many days later, that the bank has debited or credited the transaction, but I have always sorted first by column B so that my records are as close as possible to my bank statements.
When I did a sort in Excel, (B then A) the fact that B was empty, Excel sorted by the first available cell with information = A.
When I do it in Calc, nothing happens! I suppose as Calc sees nothing in the first cell (B) it just stops?
Things are more complicated than the above as I have piles of credits and debits all the way through to December, hence the Data sort by date.
How do I get Calc to do the same sort as I did in Excel?
Thanks in advance for any help
Garoolgan