Data Pasted to Excel Starts Splitting at Comma?
September 11, 2014 - by Bill Jelen
Usually, you grab text from Notepad or Email or a web page, paste to Excel, and it all stays in one column.
But...one day, late in the afternoon, the pasted data starts automatically parsing into separate columns!
![Data Pasted to Excel Starts Splitting at Comma?](/img/content/2017/12/data-pasted-to-excel-starts-splitting-at-comma-01.jpg)
Here is the deal... I bet you did a Text to Columns earlier today, where you split the data by a Comma or a Space.
Normally, Step 2 has a checkmark next to Tab. Not many people paste data with tabs, so you never noticed that Excel *always* splits pasted data by whatever is in step 2 of the Text to Columns Wizard. But, on a day where you do a text to columns and choose Comma or Space or Semi-colon.... well, on those days, any data copied from an external program and pasted to Excel will automatically parse.
To "fix" it: Close and re-open Excel. Or do a fake text to columns and change back to a Tab.
Also... every once in a while you might have to do a lot of pasting and then text to columns. On those days, doing one fake Text to Columns to get step 2 to have a comma can save you a lot of time!
This is one of the tips in Learn Excel 2007-2010 from MrExcel – 512 Excel Mysteries Solved.