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I do a lot of data trainings, which means I not only teach data tricks and skills, but have to deal with a lot of raw data myself when putting together trainings or evaluating participants. Lately, when I've tried to copy data from a Google Doc and paste it into Excel, I've noticed that Excel automatically splits my data into different columns wherever there's a space. Sure, that's helpful sometimes, but more often it's just a giant pain.
A google search reveals that I may have left my Text to Columns settings turned on - who knew? Here's how to turn that off and eliminate those pesky extra columns:
- Enter some data into a cell.
- Click "Text to Columns."
- Choose "Delimited."
- If "space" or some other delimiter is selected, de-select it.
- Click finish.
Try again - I bet your data will paste properly now!
How do you deal with cell issues in Excel? Let us know in the comments on our blog.
Katie Ellis is Data Trainings Manager at NOI.
Photo by Microsoft Sweden, via Flickr.
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