Microsoft Excel - Text to columns function crashing or not responding.

Question

In a summary, when I select a column of cells (A) I want to split the Title / First Name / Surname into separate columns. When I try and do this (Highlight the cells I want to split>Data>Text to columns>Convert Text to Columns Wizard - Step 1 of 3), the pop up box doesn't respond when I try and select Fixed Width. Even more frustrating, when i try to move to the next step with delimited selected, a strange white box appears with $A$2 inside. I've tried clicking elsewhere when this comes up but it doesn't affect the box.

I can proceed from this step and I'm not sure what else to do.

Has anyone else had this issue or does anyone have any suggestion on a fix?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Hello James,

I’m Florentino one of the Independent Advisor and I’d be happy to help you out with your question.

If this concern is also occurring in other Excel files, we can say the problem is with the application itself. Therefore, we suggest that you perform all primary troubleshooting steps to resolve this concern. Please follow each method below and get back to us with the results:

Method 1: Install Office Update.

Open Excel.
Click on File.
Go to Account.
Under Product Information, choose Update Options and click Update Now.
Once the updates completely installed, relaunch Excel and see if the problem occurs.

Method 2: Open Excel in safe mode.

Press the Windows and R key on your keyboard simultaneously.
In the Run command, type excel /safe (include space between excel and / symbol) and then click OK.
Once the Excel app opens in safe mode, observe the issue if it is persisting.

If the issue doesn’t occur while in Safe Mode, then an add-in is likely causing it. To disable add-ins, please access this link and follow the steps under Permanently disable or remove an add-in.

Note: To stop Office Safe Mode, just exit and restart your Excel application.

Method 3: Repair Office program.
Right-click the Start button (lower-left corner).
Select Apps and Features.
Right-click the Microsoft Office program and select Change and then choose Online Repair.
Click Repair and follow the on-screen instruction to continue. Restart your computer and check if the concern is still occurring.

Method 4: Uninstall and Reinstall Office program.
Uninstall Office from a PC: https://support.microsoft.com/help/9dd49b83-264a-477a-8fcc-2fdf5dbf61d8?ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us

Download and install or reinstall Office 365/Office 2016 or Office 2019 on a PC or Mac:
https://support.microsoft.com/help/4414eaaf-0478-48be-9c42-23adc4716658?ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us

Method 5: Create a new user profile.
Try to create a new user profile on the device and check if the issue will be the same.
https://support.microsoft.com/help/20de74e0-ac7f-3502-a866-32915af2a34d

Please let us know the results by replying to this thread, and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

I hope this information helps. If you have any questions, please let me know and I’ll be glad to assist you further.

Best regards,
Florentino
Independent Advisor