Can you select the values you want to change? If yes then do the following;

1. Enter -6 in any unused cell
Edit-Copy
Select the cells you want to change
Edit-Paste Special-Add

2. Enter -1 in any unused cell
Edit-Copy
Select the cells you want to change
Edit-Paste Special-Multiply

Alternatively enter this next to the column which has the values you want to
change;
(assuming Col A, enter this in B1 and copy down)

=IF(AND(A10,A1<6),(6-A1),A1)

You can then Copy the Col, do Edit-Paste Special-Values and then delete 0s.

"jhk150" wrote:

I am not able to sort the values because the data would not correspond with
the row with the respondent's ID number. Is there anything else I can do?

"BobT" wrote:

If the data is sorted (or can be) by the column with those numbers, then:

1. Sort the records by the column with numbers that need changing. This
will get all of the 1's together, and all the 2's together, etc.
2. Then highlight the 1's.
3. Press 5 then CTRL+ENTER. This places a 5 in all of the cells that had a
1.
4. Repeat for the other numbers that need to be swapped.
5. Resort if needed after all the changes are made.

"jhk150" wrote:

I have data sets in only certain columns of my spread sheet that need to be
reverse coded, i.e. 1=5, 2=4, 3=3, 4=2, 5=1 . How do I get these new values
in Excel?