Excel not recognising formats of imported data 2

[mwca]

Occasionally when I export data from some other applications to excel, they will not be recognised as, say, numbers unless I activate each cell. If I try Format/Cells and select Number, this will have no effect - it is almost as if excel does not realise there is anything in the cell.
As a result, I end up having to highlight all the data then press F2,Enter,F2,Enter,F2,Enter,F2,Enter... etc. which can obviously take a very long time!
Has anyone else had this problem and found a way around it?
Any tips would make my tired fingers very happy!

 

[patriciaanne]

In Excel 2002, you can easily convert text to numbers
Convert numbers stored as text to numbers. see how below. If you are using an earlier version of Excel, you may have to use =1*value(cell reference) to convert it to a numbers.

See Excel 2002 Help menu on converting text to numbers.
On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Error Checking tab.
Make sure the Enable background error checking and Number stored as text boxes are checked.
Select any cell with a green error indicator in the upper left corner .
Next to the cell, click the button that appears , and then click Convert to Number.

 

[xlbo]

easiest way to do this "wholesale" is to enter a 1 in a blank cell
CTRL+C to copy
Select all the textual numbers and go Edit>Paste Special
Select Values and tick multiply
et voila - the world famous *1 fix

Rgds, Geoff
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Want the best answers to your questions ? faq222-2244

 

[mwca]

Thanks very much to both of you!