black dots at begnning of some cells

[Guest]

Hi,
When my supervisor creates spread sheets and sends them to me some of the
cells have a little black dot at the beginning of the cell. It is right at
the beginning and not a perfect circle and it is touching the left line of
the cell.... what is it... more importantly... How do I get rid of them?

 

[Gord Dibben]

jenn

Perhaps they are inserted "bullets" from him entering ALT + 0149(Arial font)
or ALT + 0108(Wingdings font).

To see what they are, delete all but the character from the cell then in an
adjacent cell enter

=CODE(cellref) to get a number.

If you know the number you can Edit>Replace

what: ALT + 0149(example only)

with: nothing

NOTE: the number 0149 must be typed on the NumPad at right side of keyboard.

If no joy, download Chip Pearson's Cellview add-in to see what's in there.

http://www.cpearson.com/excel/CellView.htm


Gord Dibben Excel MVP

 

[Guest]

they are not bullets... they aren't even perfect circles or squares. They are
sort of fuzzy, az well. I download the cell view as you suggested and there
is nothing in the cell... it's just crazy

 

[Dave Peterson]

How about a leader (like in a table of contents)?

Select an offending cell
format|cells|number tab
Do you see something like:

*.@
in the Type box (where you specify your custom number format)?

The asterisk says to repeat the next character (dot in my case) until you get to
the value in the cell.

(Works nicely when the cell is right justified and the cell is wide enough.)

But with nothing (not even a space), I don't see the leaders.

(You don't have any pictures floating above that cell, do you?)

 

[Guest]

there are not pictures or triangle note marks or anything... when I tried
your suggestion there was nothing in the 'preview' box...

 

[Guest]

tried your suggestion... there is nothing in the 'sample; box or the cell,
but this funny little black fussy dot...

 

[Dave Peterson]

I don't have any other guesses.

If you hit the delete key with the offending cell selected, nothing changes?

 

[Guest]

If I copy the offending cell to a clean cell... it copies the dot. If I copy
a clean cell into the offending cell it stays.

 

[Dave Peterson]

How about hitting the delete key?

If I copy the offending cell to a clean cell... it copies the dot. If I copy
a clean cell into the offending cell it stays.

 

[Debra Dalgleish]

Could they be error indicators?

Choose Tools>Options
On the Error Checking tab, remove the check mark from
'Enable background error checking'
Click OK

How about hitting the delete key?

 

[Guest]

If I delete is stays... if I type other characters it stays

 

[Dave Peterson]

and if you set the format to General, what happens?

(a rewording of a previous check)

If I delete is stays... if I type other characters it stays

 

[Guest]

it is already set to general. I put it to number and then back to general and
still... the elusive black dot.

 

[Dave Peterson]

Can you copy that cell to a worksheet in a new workbook -- a single cell
worksheet?

If it still shows the trouble there, if you want you can send that very small
workbook to me (not the group!).

it is already set to general. I put it to number and then back to general and
still... the elusive black dot.