changing text to date format

[Guest]

I have an Excel spreadsheet with data imported from another program. One of
the columns is displaying the length of phone calls in hours, minutes and
seconds. The program that the data is coming from only displays it with one
digit per entry. For example if the call was 1 hour 2 minutes and 3 seconds
it doesn't display it as 1:02:03 but instead it displays it as 1:2:3

When I try to change the format to proper date/time formatting using the
Format Cells dialog box it just thinks that it is text and it won't accept it
as numbers that can have the formatting changed.

How can I make Excel think these are numbers and then change the formatting
to proper Date/Time formatting?

Thanks if you have an answer!

Mark

 

[pikapika13]

would you be able to attach a sample of your problem in excel format?
I'm not having a problem when I try it.

 

[Dave Peterson]

Maybe it's being treated as text (xl2002 seemed to accept 1:2:3 as a time when I
tried it).

Maybe you could try this:
Select your range
edit|replace
what: : (colon)
with: : (colon)
replace all

Here's hoping that excel sees it as a new entry and reevaluates it.