Figures locked in text format
 

I imported data from a web page and used the feature that allows me to post
the info to Excel with the destination formatting of the file I am posting it
to. However, when I try to manipulate the data, as I have done in the past
with other data, it will not let me reformat the text to number- no matter
what I do to it. I've tried everything! I want to be able to sum the column,
etc.

Figures locked in text format
 

Give us an example of the data you are working with. And what have you tried
to "do to it"?

Regards,
Fred

"Marcia" wrote in message
...
I imported data from a web page and used the feature that allows me to post
the info to Excel with the destination formatting of the file I am posting
it
to. However, when I try to manipulate the data, as I have done in the
past
with other data, it will not let me reformat the text to number- no matter
what I do to it. I've tried everything! I want to be able to sum the
column,
etc.

Figures locked in text format
 

Fred, thanks for helping me out here.

An example is a website that maintains our credit card purchases. I can
print from there a report that shows all payments and who paid, but it is in
web-format. I hit control A to highlight all, then control copy to copy and
then paste into excel. I then choose "destination formatting" for the format
I would like to have the data in on my Excel spreadsheet. In the past, I
have done this with other data from the web and have been able to reformat
from text to number and work with the data. For some reason, this time, I
cannot.

Thanks, Marcia


"Fred Smith" wrote:

Give us an example of the data you are working with. And what have you tried
to "do to it"?

Regards,
Fred

"Marcia" wrote in message
...
I imported data from a web page and used the feature that allows me to post
the info to Excel with the destination formatting of the file I am posting
it
to. However, when I try to manipulate the data, as I have done in the
past
with other data, it will not let me reformat the text to number- no matter
what I do to it. I've tried everything! I want to be able to sum the
column,
etc.

.

Figures locked in text format
 

Fred,
After messing around with the numbers a little bit more- I found that there
are two trailing spaces after the numbers. I looked on line for how to
remove them and I saw that there is a trim function to remove them. This did
not work. I also tried find and replace (find space space and replace with
blank). This did not work either. Any other ideas? For now I am hitting F2
and then deleting the spaces manually. It is too tedious for the amount of
data I have, so let me know if you've got any idea what I can do.

Thanks a lot.

-Marcia

"Fred Smith" wrote:

Give us an example of the data you are working with. And what have you tried
to "do to it"?

Regards,
Fred

"Marcia" wrote in message
...
I imported data from a web page and used the feature that allows me to post
the info to Excel with the destination formatting of the file I am posting
it
to. However, when I try to manipulate the data, as I have done in the
past
with other data, it will not let me reformat the text to number- no matter
what I do to it. I've tried everything! I want to be able to sum the
column,
etc.

.

Figures locked in text format
 

Fred,
Just after my last message- I poked around on-line one more time and found
on a PC magazine discussion group someone that had the same exact problem as
me and it turned out that the solution was to use find and replace, but in
find I had to copy the spaces from behind my numbers and paste those into
find box and replace with blank. It worked. I'm good to go. Thanks again.

-Marcia

"Fred Smith" wrote:

Give us an example of the data you are working with. And what have you tried
to "do to it"?

Regards,
Fred

"Marcia" wrote in message
...
I imported data from a web page and used the feature that allows me to post
the info to Excel with the destination formatting of the file I am posting
it
to. However, when I try to manipulate the data, as I have done in the
past
with other data, it will not let me reformat the text to number- no matter
what I do to it. I've tried everything! I want to be able to sum the
column,
etc.

.

Figures locked in text format
 

This is common in data download from the internet. It's typically
non-breaking spaces (Alt-160) which are causing the problem. Unfortunately,
neither Trim nor Clean removes these characters. Your solution is as good as
any.

Regards,
Fred

"Marcia" wrote in message
...
Fred,
Just after my last message- I poked around on-line one more time and found
on a PC magazine discussion group someone that had the same exact problem
as
me and it turned out that the solution was to use find and replace, but in
find I had to copy the spaces from behind my numbers and paste those into
find box and replace with blank. It worked. I'm good to go. Thanks
again.

-Marcia

"Fred Smith" wrote:

Give us an example of the data you are working with. And what have you
tried
to "do to it"?

Regards,
Fred

"Marcia" wrote in message
...
I imported data from a web page and used the feature that allows me to
post
the info to Excel with the destination formatting of the file I am
posting
it
to. However, when I try to manipulate the data, as I have done in the
past
with other data, it will not let me reformat the text to number- no
matter
what I do to it. I've tried everything! I want to be able to sum the
column,
etc.

.