One way:

In an adjacent column (say, "B"), enter

B1: ="*" & A1 & "*"

Copy down.

You can then select column B, copy it, then select column A and choose
Edit/Paste Special/Values.


In article ,
Jeff wrote:

I have a large column of numbers in the format of 111111-11. All the numbers
are random, but they are always six numbers, dash, then two more numbers.
Occasionally the first number will be the letter 't'. Anyway, I need to add
an * to the beginning and the end to this column. The reason is to convert
these numbers to a bar code with a bar code font, there has to be an * before
and after the text that is being converted to bar code. The idea is simple,
just adding an *, but in practice, I'm having a hard time.

Thanks