Multiple Cells

[emobley]

Good morning,

For my job I am needing to format a column of cells as text and then it needs to show the green error trace arrow in the bottom left corner for it to be able to be uploaded into another program. (Sounds crazy, I know, but for some reason that's the only way it works.) I have tried highlighted all of the cells and then pressing F2 so that it is entered for editing but it will only do one cell at a time. Is there anyway to enter multiple cells for editing? It would save me so much time. (For clarification, the error trace arrow doesn't automatically show until I have entered that cell for editing. And all of the information in each cell is numerical. Also I am using Excel 2016 but to upload we have to change it to the 93-2003) I do apologize that this is confusing. Please let me know if any more clarification is necessary.

Thank you,
Emily

 

[Dryver14]

Have you tried using the trace precedents, trace dependents and or show formulas on the formulas tab?

 

[FormR]

Hi, welcome to the forum.

If I've understood correctly - you could try highlighting the column you want to convert to text and..

> choose "Text to Columns" from the "Data" tab
> choose "Delimited" and click "Next"
> uncheck all the "Delimiters" and click "Next"
> choose "Text" from the "column data format" options and click "Finish"

 

[emobley]

Have you tried using the trace precedents, trace dependents and or show formulas on the formulas tab?

I googled around when I first ran into this problem and sadly the Precedents and Dependents gave me the same error; "The Trace [Precedents or Dependents] command requires that the active cell contain a formula which includes valid references." And then when I attempt the "Show Formula" selection all it does is move the information in each cell in a sort of zig-zag pattern down the column but unfortunately does not show the trace error arrow.

I really appreciate your reply though, if you have any other ideas I will happily try them.

Emily

 

[emobley]

Oh my goodness, you're a wizard! It worked! Thank you so much :D