When copying a table from a webpage, the numeric data pastes into Excel as
text. Normally, I can easily convert "text digits" by simply clicking in each
cell (as if to edit) or doing a search/replace, looking for one character (a
common digit, decimal point) and replacing it with the same. That method
isn't working with the HTML-originated data, which refuses to convert itself
unless it's re-typed.

What is it about this data type that makes it so stubborn?

TIA