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How do I stop EXCEL from inserting apostrophies before all text and numbers in a worksheet?

Anonymous
2013-11-23T18:40:46+00:00

I am using Excel version 2013 on a WIN7 computer.  I imported a worksheet from Access (very old version) and Excel is putting an apostrophe at the beginning of each cell.  I have tried to edit the cell and remove the apostrophe but as I press enter the apostrophe is re-inserted.

Should I export the file to a text file and re-import it?  I have looked through the options and cannot find anything wrong.

Thanks,

Dave

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-12-01T00:49:07+00:00

    I found a fix. Remembering that I had imported this file from Access I figured that was causing the problem.

    I saved the file as .csv then saved the file as a .xlsx file. The conversion stripped the junk out.

    Thanks,

    Dave

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  1. Ashish Mathur 101.8K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2013-11-23T23:34:54+00:00

    Hi,

    Try this

    1. Type 1 in any cell and copy that cell
    2. Select the range, right click > Paste Special > Multiply.

    Hope this helps.

    9 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2013-12-01T13:46:04+00:00

    Or Copy an empty cell (which is treated as 0) and Paste special with Add

    Saves the "chore" of deleting the 1 at some time <grin>

    bet wishes

    6 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Ashish Mathur 101.8K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2013-12-01T22:55:22+00:00

    Thank you for sharing.

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