Windows XP text to number formatting with negatives

[Sara Wilson]

hi

I have a file imported to excel which has converted all the negative numbers to text. How do I convert them back to numbers?

I have tried the method whereby you copy and past special multiplying by 1 and it does not work - maybe because of the - (negative symbol) after the text (number).

Many thanks in advance for any answers received.

 

[ChristopherP]

have you used the Copy >> right click, Paste special in excel, and tried the different options?

See below:

 

[Sara Wilson]

I've tried the paste special and multiply by 1 (see my original post!) but this does not work. If I do this it just returns "1" in the cell - as I said this maybe because of the negative or dash at the end of the number.

For info the text I am trying to convert is left aligned in the following format:
111.22-. but with several hundred such numbers. All the positive numbers have imported o.k. (as numbers).

Regards

Sara