If I need to quickly change an entire column (800 rows) of negative numbers
to positive numbers, what is the easiest way. I tried the paste special
multiply by -1, but it didn't work, I'm probably doing it wrong.

If your data is in A1:A10 and -1 is in B1, then copy B1, select A1:A10 and
click edit/paste special/multiply.


"Nita" wrote:

> If I need to quickly change an entire column (800 rows) of negative numbers
> to positive numbers, what is the easiest way. I tried the paste special
> multiply by -1, but it didn't work, I'm probably doing it wrong.

If the copy and paste special>multiply did not work, perhaps your numbers are
not "numbers" but text.

In an adjacent colukmn enter =ISNUMBER(cellref) and copy down a few rows.

Do you get TRUE or FALSE?


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

On Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:12:01 -0800, Nita <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>If I need to quickly change an entire column (800 rows) of negative numbers
>to positive numbers, what is the easiest way. I tried the paste special
>multiply by -1, but it didn't work, I'm probably doing it wrong.

I tried the copy/paste special on text values already, but the copy/paste
special worked for me. Even when the text values were the result of formula,
excel added *-1 to the end thereby coercing the text values to numeric.

"Gord Dibben" wrote:

> If the copy and paste special>multiply did not work, perhaps your numbers are
> not "numbers" but text.
>
> In an adjacent colukmn enter =ISNUMBER(cellref) and copy down a few rows.
>
> Do you get TRUE or FALSE?
>
>
> Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP
>
> On Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:12:01 -0800, Nita <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >If I need to quickly change an entire column (800 rows) of negative numbers
> >to positive numbers, what is the easiest way. I tried the paste special
> >multiply by -1, but it didn't work, I'm probably doing it wrong.
>
>