I have imported a large amount of data to an Excel spreadsheet from
another (not a Microsoft application). It came to Excel originally as
a comma-separated file (*.csv).

In each cell, which contains a number of paragraphs of text, at the
end of each paragraph of text there are five equal signs following by
a little hollow square (which pastes as a solid circle here).=====•
•
And in between each paragraph there is another square. Like this
=====•
•
And this.=====•
•
And so on.=====•
•
1. I want to get rid of these
2. When I try to do a search and replace
a. I cannot copy and paste the square into the SEARCH AND
REPLACE dialogue box;
b. When I try to replace the five equal signs (=====), I get
the error message "The formula is too long".

Any ideas?

Thanks.

paddymichelle

Just some suggestions
Have you tried replacing just one = by nothing
If you have a csv file, you can open it in Word. Try the replce in Word; in the replace dialogue, click the More button and then the Special button: there are options for replace characters that cannot be typed from the keyboard.

1. Make use of Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V for Copy-and-Paste operations in
SEARCH AND REPLACE dialogue box.

2. Formula too Long ; Are you getting long text strings in single
cells ? Share each long text strings in 2 separate cells. It's quite
simply philosophical that when a job is shared, it gets lighter and
Quite Easily Done (QED). After that, Concatenate the text strings
again.

Remember?! : Analyse, Break-Down, Solve the Components and there,
Integrate into A Wholesome Solution.

Regards.