Formatting Numbers

[Guest]

Hi Guys, can anyone help?
I'm importing data from an access database into an Excel spreadsheet. I have
a column that contains numeric and alpha numeric data. I need to be able to
format the numeric data so that it is in number format (currently it imports
in general format). If I change the format of the column to number, nothing
happens until I edit an individual cell. On leaving the cell it is converted
to a number. I have lots of data though so this isn't very practical. Does
anyone know a quick way to do this? Is it causing a problem because I have
mixed numeric and alphanumeric data in the column? I'm happy to change the
format of the alphanumeric data manually as there are only two or three
fields but need the number formats to change in a "one click" time frame due
to the amount of data!!

If anyone can help I'd really appreciated it.

Many thanks
Paul

 

[Frank Kabel]

Hi
try the following:
- select an empty cell and copy it
- select your imported data range
- goto 'Edit - Paste Special' and choose the action 'Add'

 

[Guest]

Thanks Frank, that worked. That's a neat trick that'll remember forever!!