Changing cell formats from numbers to text

Posted by Joe on July 08, 2001 1:26 PM

I have to change formats in columns of downloaded figures from numbers to text. Using
FORMAT-CELL-TEXT will not actually change the format unless I cursor-select each cell,
press F2 and press Enter. It seems Excel should offer a more immediate way to
mass-change cell formatting.

Is there a command that will change the format in an entire column, or is a macro the
only way to automate this F2-Enter-Down key sequence?

Thanks.

Posted by Richard S on July 08, 2001 8:36 PM

When importing the data from an external source, you could nominate the format of the column as text instead of general.

Posted by Joe on July 09, 2001 4:27 AM

Thanks for the response, when importing ASCII files I can set the fields to "Text"
and that works fine. It's the .xls files or .xlk files that cause me the problem
when I have to reformat them.

Posted by Barrie Davidson on July 09, 2001 12:49 PM

If you select the column of data (one column at a time only), you can then select Data|Text to Columns. This will bring up the "Convert Text to Columns" wizard, which is just like the import wizard box. Specify a text format instead of general and your numbers are now text.

Regards,
Barrie

Posted by Joe on July 09, 2001 5:54 PM

Re: Changing cell formats from numbers to text PROBLEM SOLVED!

Thanks Barrie! That's a great solution, works like a charm.