format troubles - possible cut/paste issue

[sorrywm]

I copied some data into an Excel (2004) spreadsheet from the web, and now I
can't operate on the cells, despite the fact that their format is 'Number.'
I've tried re-copying the cells and paste-special-ing 'Value,' but to no
avail. Does anyone know how to make Excel recognize these perfectly good
numbers?

 

[Sheeloo]

Enter 1 anywhere in your worksheet.
Copy the cell with 1.
Select the range with your 'numbers'
Right click and choose Paste Special (or from Edit menu)
Click on MULTIPLY and Click OK

Voila...

If this does not work then first try the TRIM formula and then try the above
with the result...

 

[Jacob Skaria]

Please try this.
Select all the cells in the worksheet using the CTRL + A keystrokes.
On the Edit menu, point to Clear, and click the Formats option.

If this post helps click Yes

 

[sorrywm]

Using MULTIPLY again resulted in inoperable (but apparently numeric) cells.
Using TRIM and then MULTIPLY resulted in a #VALUE! error.

 

[Shane Devenshire]

Hi,

1. To verify what is going on select on of the cells and then click the
Formula Bar - are there spaces before or after the number on the formula bar?
Most likely yes.

2. These may or may not be "spacebar spaces". Here is what I usually do,
highlight the entire range of numbers and press Ctrl+H. In the Find what box
type a single space, leave the Replace with box empty. Press Replace All.
This will get all the regular spaces, but others may remain. You can repeat
step 1 to verify if there are other types of spaces.

3. If there still are some spaces, select one of cells and click on the
Formula Bar, highlight a single space on the Formula Bar and copy it. Press
Esc once. Press Ctrl+H, select the contents of the Find what box and choose
paste. This will replace the regular space with the character you copied
from the cell. Click Replace All.

4. Hopefully this will clear up the problem. If not you need to post a
sample of the data. So we can see what you really have.

 

[sorrywm]

There are no spaces in my data. Find/Replace gave me an error message saying
there was nothing to replace.
I'm not sure whether anyone will be able to determine anything from playing
with the data, because the copy-paste issue (I'm fairly sure that's what it
is) might not happen on other people's computers. But it's worth a shot:
87 8 46
69 27 99
85 27 91
64 1 26
76 25 97

 

[Gord Dibben]

Web data lotsa times has non-breaking spaces 0160

Try edit replace and in the what: dialog hold Alt key and hit 0160 on the
numpad.

In the with: dialog enter nothing


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[sorrywm]

This didn't work, but it's possible that's because my computer is a Mac. Do
you know if there is a different way to do Alt+0160 on a Mac? I've tried
option, ctrl, fn, and the apple key, none of which worked, but maybe there's
some combination that will work.

 

[Gord Dibben]

I know nothing about a Mac

Sorry, Gord

This didn't work, but it's possible that's because my computer is a Mac. Do
you know if there is a different way to do Alt+0160 on a Mac? I've tried
option, ctrl, fn, and the apple key, none of which worked, but maybe there's
some combination that will work.