[Folsom]

So if you've got 500 some rows, and 2-4 columns...

Each column needs to combine to the A one. Think a paragraph in each, but some how it's been split to several columns.

However the formatting is royally screwed up. It was original csv format. I changed it to xlxs so that saving it wouldn't destroy what I've managed to fix already. But basically you can't type normally in the boxes at all, it deletes things and has huge spaces between them that come and go as you're typing. It's utter nonsense. Copying and pasting into word, then pasting back in after deleting cells is the only thing that seems to work. When I paste in word however there's often huge gaps between words and sometimes it misses the last word so I have to clean it all up first.

I did a clear all format, and added word wrap back, and it changed nothing at all.

 

[Folsom]

It appears it used commas to split the original cells apart.

[Peter J]

Jeremy, I probably know a tiny bit more about Excel than building chip amps, but when in trouble, I've gotten help here:

http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/index.php

Nerdiest nerds I've come across, and I say that with admiration.

[Odal3]

Send me a note if you have any future excel questions and I'd be happy to help.

 Note that some version of excel have limitations of how many characters that can fit in each cell.

I need to see it to understand exactly what you are trying to paste but here are a couple of options.
Open up a new excel sheet so you don't mess up what you have already done. Import csv file by either copy and paste as special text or values. Alternatively import via the Data menu/ get external data from text. May be called something differently depending on version of excel. This will show an import screen that will give you options how to split the data.if you paste the text you can highlight the column and click on data/text to columns to get to the same screen

If you still can't get the data correct, add a column to the side and join the cells by using a formula that looks like this: =A1&B1&C1 for the cells you need to join.

[Folsom]

Copying and pasting the whole thing got rid of the issues. I can copy and paste in the file now, thank you.

Unfortunately I can't use the third party software on this, that would allow me to merge cells without deleting data.

[JakeJ]

You can build a formula using the CONCATENATE instruction and rebuild or rejoin the text the way you want it?

[Folsom]

Beyond my pay grade of free help

Maybe I'll check that out tomorrow.

[ebag4]

You can build a formula using the CONCATENATE instruction and rebuild or rejoin the text the way you want it?

This was my recommendation as well.

Best,
Ed

[JakeJ]

If the information (data) is not sensitive then I would be willing to help.  You could email me as an attachment if the file size is small enough.  Most email servers are limiting file sizes to 2-3 Mb.  If the file is larger then we might use dropbox or something similar.

Let me know either way.

[srb]

Email size limits have increased over the last few years.  While it obviously varies for each ISP or free webmail account, I believe Gmail, Hotmail/Outlook, Yahoo Mail are all 25MB and my Cox ISP email limit is 20MB.

However because there is an overhead of ~ 33%, that would limit attachment size correspondingly to less than ~ 16MB or ~ 13MB.