I have thousands of SSNs that imported to my Excel 2002 document without
formatting. I would like to change them from "123456789" to "123-45-6789."
I researched this, and other postings here instructed me to create a new
column, format the new cells to "Special / Social Security Number," then copy
the unformatted cells using Paste Special and choose Add. This doesn't work.
The format still says it's in SSN format, but the numbers are still
123456789. Please, what am I doing wrong?!!

Try this:

1. copy your ssn's to a new column.
2. in an un-used cell enter the number 1
3. copy the cell
4. select the new column of ssn's
5. do an edit paste/special with multiply checked

this will convert the column to true numbers

6. re-format the new column to SSN format.
--
Gary's Student


"ClaireView" wrote:

I have thousands of SSNs that imported to my Excel 2002 document without
formatting. I would like to change them from "123456789" to "123-45-6789."
I researched this, and other postings here instructed me to create a new
column, format the new cells to "Special / Social Security Number," then copy
the unformatted cells using Paste Special and choose Add. This doesn't work.
The format still says it's in SSN format, but the numbers are still
123456789. Please, what am I doing wrong?!!

Why not just format the original column?

If you really want the dashes (i.e., as part if the text entry vs a
number entry) then parse out the number & add the dashes:

=LEFT(A1,3)&"-"&MID(A1,3,4)&"-"&RIGHT(A1,4)

---GJC


--
gjcase
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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View this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=527850

Why can't you select the entire column containing the numbers, select
FormatCellsNumber tab. Select Special from the Category list, select SSN
format and click OK. All of the unformatted numbers should change to the SSN
foprmat.

"ClaireView" wrote:

I have thousands of SSNs that imported to my Excel 2002 document without
formatting. I would like to change them from "123456789" to "123-45-6789."
I researched this, and other postings here instructed me to create a new
column, format the new cells to "Special / Social Security Number," then copy
the unformatted cells using Paste Special and choose Add. This doesn't work.
The format still says it's in SSN format, but the numbers are still
123456789. Please, what am I doing wrong?!!

I don't know why I didn't think of multiplying by one when adding zero didn't
work, but it did the trick! Thanks for all your help!

"ClaireView" wrote:

I have thousands of SSNs that imported to my Excel 2002 document without
formatting. I would like to change them from "123456789" to "123-45-6789."
I researched this, and other postings here instructed me to create a new
column, format the new cells to "Special / Social Security Number," then copy
the unformatted cells using Paste Special and choose Add. This doesn't work.
The format still says it's in SSN format, but the numbers are still
123456789. Please, what am I doing wrong?!!

Adding 0 or multiplying by one will do the same thing, my guess is that the
cell you copied had a different format


--

Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

http://nwexcelsolutions.com


"ClaireView" wrote in message
...
I don't know why I didn't think of multiplying by one when adding zero
didn't
work, but it did the trick! Thanks for all your help!

"ClaireView" wrote:

I have thousands of SSNs that imported to my Excel 2002 document without
formatting. I would like to change them from "123456789" to
"123-45-6789."
I researched this, and other postings here instructed me to create a new
column, format the new cells to "Special / Social Security Number," then
copy
the unformatted cells using Paste Special and choose Add. This doesn't
work.
The format still says it's in SSN format, but the numbers are still
123456789. Please, what am I doing wrong?!!

I have the opposite problem. I have thousands of SSNs in the 123-45-6789
format which I want as a number in the format 123456789. I have tried custom
formatting(000000000), changing text to columns and then joining the three
separate cells into one. EX: 012-01-0123 becomes 121123, even with each cell
having custom formatting applied.

As ClairView wrote: Please, what am I doing wrong?!!

"ClaireView" wrote:

I have thousands of SSNs that imported to my Excel 2002 document without
formatting. I would like to change them from "123456789" to "123-45-6789."
I researched this, and other postings here instructed me to create a new
column, format the new cells to "Special / Social Security Number," then copy
the unformatted cells using Paste Special and choose Add. This doesn't work.
The format still says it's in SSN format, but the numbers are still
123456789. Please, what am I doing wrong?!!