force Excel to treat numbers as text
 

Sorry I searched this and no one seems to have a solution. I tried
pre-defiming columns as text but it gets over-riden by the paste. Paste
Special doesn't do the trick..

paste special as text on tabular data coming from a web site puts most
of the data in the first column. It no longer spreads the columns of
pasted data into its own excel columns

the tabular data, tab delimited, I want to 'copy&paste' looks like
this:

1) OGRODOWICZ MARK M47 6306 BROOKLYN NY 533 446 41 24:00 23:25 7:33
20:58

2) CHAO DUSTIN M35 3738 NEW YORK NY 534 447 155 24:02 23:47 7:40 23:16


The paste should put this data into 2 rows, 12 columns in WYSIWYG
format. All data is text.

One problem is Excel insists putting in 24:02:00 rater than 24:02.
The other problem Excel sees that and 7:40 as some kind of date/time.

Is this a lost cause?


--
GottaRun
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force Excel to treat numbers as text
 

if it is pasting into a single column you can use the data..text to
columns menu to split it out.
use the options space delimited, the select all columns and state as
text then the function will leave all data as text.

hope this helps


--
tony h
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force Excel to treat numbers as text
 

Hi ......,

You can probably fix your data by using Data, Text to Columns
format the columns of the spreadsheet as Text beforehand
delimited perhaps TAB, perhaps spaces (treat multiples as one)
format all columns as Text within the Wizard (if I understand you correctly)

If after separation into columns, still messed up, you could start over
with transition options turned on, But don't forget to turn the transition\
options off afterwards, or you will have lots of problems with date and
time entry, as well as use of shortcuts. .

What browser are you copying from, if it is not IE 6 you will probably
have a problem.

What is the source web page, if available to anyone.

What is your version of Excel.

You posted from ExcelForum, so exactly what did you search
ExcelForum, limited to web pages debauched by a "forum"
Google (web search), unfortunately includes contamination by ExcelForum
Google Groups, this is where newsgroup postings appear
---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"GottaRun" wrote in message
...

Sorry I searched this and no one seems to have a solution. I tried
pre-defiming columns as text but it gets over-riden by the paste. Paste
Special doesn't do the trick..

paste special as text on tabular data coming from a web site puts most
of the data in the first column. It no longer spreads the columns of
pasted data into its own excel columns

the tabular data, tab delimited, I want to 'copy&paste' looks like
this:

1) OGRODOWICZ MARK M47 6306 BROOKLYN NY 533 446 41 24:00 23:25 7:33
20:58

2) CHAO DUSTIN M35 3738 NEW YORK NY 534 447 155 24:02 23:47 7:40 23:16


The paste should put this data into 2 rows, 12 columns in WYSIWYG
format. All data is text.

One problem is Excel insists putting in 24:02:00 rater than 24:02.
The other problem Excel sees that and 7:40 as some kind of date/time.

Is this a lost cause?


--
GottaRun
------------------------------------------------------------------------
GottaRun's Profile: http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=31297
View this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=523957