Help Separating Words in one column to two columns

[thedirebear]

So i have a list of data in one column, in which each cell contains an author followed by an underscore followed by the description. There is a range of 3 different authors and a range of about 20 different descriptions that could be in each cell. My hope is to expand the one cell to two different cells, one with author and one with description.

EX:

|"auth_desc"| --->>> | "auth" | "desc" |

I've been regularly viewing threads on these forums for a while and could probably find a way to get it to work if I had the slightest clue about how to start, so any ideas would be very helpful.

Thanks in advance.

[K m]

Assuming the information is in cell A1:
For Author use this formula: =LEFT(A1,FIND("_",A1)-1)
For Description use this formula: =RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-FIND("_",A1))

If the information is in column A, you can put the Author formula in column B and Description formula in column C, copy the formula down as needed

[Solus Rankin]

In excel 2010 highlight your data, go to data tab and click text to columns using the under_score as a deliminator.

[LaffyAffy13]

Another option is this:
If all cells contain only 4 letters for the author and 4 letters for the description, then this may work

Sub split()

Dim list1 As Range
Dim listnumber As Long

Range("D1").FormulaR1C1 = "=COUNTA(RC[-3]:R[10000]C[-3])"
Range("D1").Select
listnumber = ActiveCell.Value
ActiveCell.ClearContents

Application.ScreenUpdating = False

For Each list1 In Range("A1:A" & listnumber)
    list1.Offset(, 1).Select
    ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "=MID(RC[-1], 1, 4)"
    ActiveCell.Copy
    Selection.PasteSpecial Paste:=xlPasteValues, Operation:=xlNone, SkipBlanks _
        :=False, Transpose:=False
    
    list1.Offset(, 2).Select
    ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "=MID(RC[-2], 6, 4)"
    ActiveCell.Copy
    Selection.PasteSpecial Paste:=xlPasteValues, Operation:=xlNone, SkipBlanks _
        :=False, Transpose:=False

    If list1.FormulaR1C1 = "" Then Exit For
 

Next list1

Range("B:C").Cut

Range("A:B").Select

ActiveSheet.Paste
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
Range("A1").Select

End Sub

[thedirebear]

Thank you all for the fast replies, I can't believe I didn't think of the text to column option myself but i'll be sure to try out all of these methods to see which one works best.