Monday, February 10, 2014

Tech Tips - Using the Text-to-Columns wizard in Microsoft Excel



Change dates like 20140219 to one Excel can "understand"
Suppose you are looking at a worksheet which contains dates which can't be formatted as "real" dates because of their structure:



Select the date(s), and use Data tab, Text-to-Columns, [Excel2003:Data|Text to Columns]



Which brings up the Text-to-Columns wizard:



Even though the dates are fixed width, in this case you can simply click "Next" twice.

In step 3 of wizard Select Date, YMD:



If you click Finish now, the result will replace the dates. You can select another destination cell:



Here's the result:




Source: Microsoft: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/six-great-tips-from-this-isnt-excel-its-magic-by-bob-umlas-HA010282444.aspx