Text to Columns - moves text up

[Stoofer]

Hello

excel 2000 / 97

I quite often use Text To Columns to convert text to numbers so that
for instance the same number doesnt show up twice in pivots just
because one instance is formatted as text and another as numeric.

Its usually very useful but I notice that sometimes it unexpectedly
moves data upwards in a column. This particulary seems to affect new
sheets:

eg
open new sheet
Enter following values

a2 5
a3 '5
a4 5

Select column A and do Data>Text to columns. The data seems to be
pasted up by one row so I now have 4 rows of data.

If you repeat these steps on the same sheet ( in any column) with the
same initial data it now works perfectly and no move occurs.

What is going on?

Thanks

 

[Dave Peterson]

If you select A2:A4, it'll work.

If you put something in row 1 (any column), it'll work if you select the whole
column.

 

[Stoofer]

Cheers Dave.

If you select A2:A4, it'll work.

If you put something in row 1 (any column), it'll work if you select the whole
column.