Most likely you have invisible html characters, try this
do editreplace, in the find what box hold down alt key and type 0160 on the
numpad, release the alt button, leave replace with empty
click OK

If you do this often you might want to use a macro

http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/join.htm#trimall


same web site has info on how to install macros



--


Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

Excel 95 - Excel 2007
Northwest Excel Solutions
www.nwexcelsolutions.com


"windsurferLA" wrote in message
. ..
I'm seeking to analyze data copied from stock broker on-line statement.
The values copy across as text with (what appears to be) a space before
and after each number. I can manually delete the spaces by pressing F2
and the delete or backspace key as appropriate for the space at the front
and rear of the number which is otherwise of the form
-$123,456.00

The function Value() does not retrieve the value from the text stream.

The function Trim() does not remove the spaces.

The menu function, "replace" does not find the spaces when you use the
space bar to enter the item to be searched for.

Is there a special character that appears as a space but is not a space?