Hi,

Data Validation should work for all new entries after you turn it on. For
items that were already entered you need to manually correct those. How you
do that depends on which 12 characters you want to retain, for example the
first 12 or the last 12.

Suppose your entries start in cell A2, then in an empty column enter the
formula =LEFT(A2,12) or =RIGHT(A2,12) and copy it down as far as necessary.
Convert these formulas to values and replace data in column A with these new
results.

--
Cheers,
Shane Devenshire


"greatdeals_007" wrote:

I am using a program that limits the number of characters in a product model
number to 12 characters. my file currently contains may line items with
model numbers that exceed this limit.

how do I format the column to shorten the number of characters? I have
tried using the data validation but it did nothing for me. can you help?