i had a similar problem. you can go to chip pearson site and download the
"cell view add-in" this will give you the actual character to look for like
"Alt-155" for the ¢ sign and so forth. You could then use Find/Replace as
Alt0155 as above. Another approach is to use the ASAPutilities.com free
add-in to strip all non-printing characters.

If you are working with imported data or lots of stuff off the web, both of
these free add-ins are essential in my opinion.

"Dave F" wrote:

One thing to try (on a backup copy of your data) is the TRIM function, which
strips text strings of unprintable characters. A similar function is the
CLEAN function.

Try those and see if either or both work.

Dave
--
Brevity is the soul of wit.


"yamefui" wrote:

Hello, in a series of spreadsheet cells (format is general text) is an
example below of the information contained in each. However, separating each
line of data (name, company, address, city-state-zip) there are one or two
small block shaped outlines, about 1/2 the size of the letters which may be
present due to the previous format in which the information was contained. I
cannot copy-paste them here for you to see as this online format will not
accept them.

Johnson, Jimmy (2 small blocks)
Acme Realtors, L.L.C. (2 small blocks)
1582 Oak Drive (2 small blocks)
Hotlanta, GA 30093 (2 small blocks)

I am trying to split this information into separate columns for first name,
last name, company, street address, city, state zipcode but cannot (using the
Text to Columns option in the Data menu (delimited function). When I attempt
this and step through the Convert text to Columns wizard the only information
that remains is the name information in this format/result (Johnson, Jimmy).
All the other information disappears and I don't know why (neither does the
original creator of the spreadsheet). I cannot use the Fixed Width option
because the data in the 8000+ cells is so skewed it cannot be separated
properly.

Any ideas on how I can find a workable solution? Please advise if the
description I provided needs clarification.

--
jon