JE:
Thanks for the suggestion. Tried it but it didn't work for me. The problem
turns out to be that pesky first non-printable character. I thought
CLEAN(A1) would work(A1 contains the number/test), it didn't. Eventually I
tried the RIGHT(A1,9) but the first attempt at this, I miscounted the
digits and entered RIGHT(A1,10). I was in a deadline crisis mode so I
manually deleted the first character of around 200 entries, twice. It was in
later research that I stubbled onto my error and used the correct RIGHT
formula.

Thanks for the response. I can live with the RIGHT function, just
disapointed that the CLEAN function didn't do the job.

Regards,

Craig

"JE McGimpsey" wrote in message
...
One way:

Copy an empty cell. Select your "text numbers". Choose Edit/Paste
Special, selecting the Values and Add radio buttons. Click OK.

In article ,
"C Brandt" wrote:

Spent about 30 minutes today fixing a column of numbers that I needed to
act
like numbers, not text.

479862673



479862673

The first number above has a character in front of it that prevents it
from
being treated like a number. If I were to multiply it by one I get the
#VALUE! error. I deleted the first character and then it acts like a
number.

I finaly figured out that a RIGHT(text,9) will solve my problem.

Is there a simpler solution?

Thanks in advance,
Craig