Why do dashes change the format of tables in ConvertToTable?

[home4ward]

I'm creating a long list of items, separated by tabs. Then I use
ConvertToTable, where I set the number of columns and rows. Everything works
fine unless one of the items contains a dash, such as a negative number or a
hyphenated word. Then the whole format gets messed up - the number of columns
changes (from 4 to 12, for example), and the number of rows change (from 4 to
1, for example). Can someone tell me how I can work around this? Thanks

 

[home4ward via OfficeKB.com]

I wound up changing all the dashes to ASCII 173 characters. Problem solved,
(but I still can't figure out why the dashes were destroying the format of my
table).