cell format of numbers

**joshtex** · 03-21-2007, 08:35 PM

I have copied and pasted numbers from one program to Excel. The Excel format indicates that the number is in general form. I can change the format. However, the format of the number is not changed. I believe this because when I try to format the number for 2 decimal places it does not format and when I use Vlookup, the match is not recognized.

If I place my cursor to the first of each cell, hit delete and enter, the number does format to a number. Can anyone explain to me what happening?

I need to format 1200 of these numbers. I do not want to do it a cell at a time.

Thanks

**Paul** · 03-21-2007, 08:52 PM

Try this:

Assuming your "numbers" are in column A, from A1 to A1200..

In any empty cell type the number 1 and press Enter. Copy this cell, then select A1:A1200 and click Edit-->PasteSpecial-->Multiply.

This should "trick" Excel into making your data numeric.