You can use a macro to remove the apostrophes, as described in the
following MSKB article:

XL2000: Visual Basic Macros That Add or Remove Hidden Apostrophes
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=213440

Don wrote:
In some Excel files, both native and those created with data imported from a
tab delimited file, many or all of the cells are populated with the ' (as is)
character. This presents a problem when I would like to have cells formatted
in a specific manner (i.e. dates/double integer). I have tried to
search/replace for the character to no avail. Does anyone have a surefire
way of removing this "exact" character enmasse?

Thanks,
Don


--
Debra Dalgleish
Excel FAQ, Tips & Book List
http://www.contextures.com/tiptech.html