copy and paste data in Excel (need to be text not number)

[DougP]

I am coping information from our WEB site into Excel 2003, the Facility Id for example starts with a number and sometimes a letter. Like L123 or 8934
When I paste it into Excel it makes the numbers right justified and the letters left justified. I am using Excel as a temporary holding area since I can’t paste this directly into Access 2003. I even have the headings as text and it ignores that too. Argh!!
When I highlight that and paste into Access to make a new table, Access makes the field text and deletes the numbers all together. Even if I change the columns before hand using format cells text, it ignores that when it pastes and still makes the number right justified.

Any Ideas how to get around this?


DougP

 

[SkipVought]

Hi,

1. Why COPY? Why not a WEB query?

2. If you do COPY, Edit > Paste Special - TEXT, then PARSE using Data > Text to Columns and choose TEXT for the column containing this data.

Skip,

_{When a group touring the Crest Toothpaste factory got caught in a large cooler, headlines read...
Tooth Company Freeze a Crowd! and
Many are Cold, but Few are Frozen!}

 

[DougP]

I don't know how to do a WEB query?
this is a Table on our WEB page.

DougP

 

[SkipVought]

Data > Import External Data > Web Query....

Paste in the URL, and drill down to specific table.

Skip,

_{When a group touring the Crest Toothpaste factory got caught in a large cooler, headlines read...
Tooth Company Freeze a Crowd! and
Many are Cold, but Few are Frozen!}

 

[DougP]

I don't suppose this can be done the same way in Access which is where all the data needs to end up?

DougP

 

[SkipVought]

Never tried it in Access. You might try posting in one of the Access Forums.

Skip,

_{When a group touring the Crest Toothpaste factory got caught in a large cooler, headlines read...
Tooth Company Freeze a Crowd! and
Many are Cold, but Few are Frozen!}

 

[DougP]

thank you Skip
and for the super fast responses

DougP

 

[rss01]

Doug,

One thing to keep in mind about Excel. Even though you change an entire column to the text format, if the cell already has data in it, it will need to activated before it changes to text.

Go into a cell that has numbers and hit the F2 key then ENTER to leave the cell, you should see the upper left hand corner of the cell has a green triangle in it now. The green triangle tells you that cell has TEXT formatting.

I'm using Excel 2003 and thats how it works.

Randy