Using F2 - How do you do 3,000 entries all at once?

I have discovered I need to change cell formatting from Text to General in
order to get my VLOOKUP to work properly. The problem is is that I would
prefer to do this all at once as my column contains well over 3,000 entries.
Imagine pressing F2, Enter, F2, Enter, F2, Enter into each individual cell (I
can't keep the beat going!) Is there a better way to perfom this task in one
step?

First off, format your range to "General" or "Number"
Enter a 1 into any blank cell.
Copy that cell.
Select your range of data to convert.
Paste Special, and select "Multiply"
Click OK
Delete the 1 that you entered originally.

By multiplying all data by 1, you've changed each value that Excel can
recognize as a number into a number without changing the value.

HTH,
Elkar

"AndreaW" wrote:

> I have discovered I need to change cell formatting from Text to General in
> order to get my VLOOKUP to work properly. The problem is is that I would
> prefer to do this all at once as my column contains well over 3,000 entries.
> Imagine pressing F2, Enter, F2, Enter, F2, Enter into each individual cell (I
> can't keep the beat going!) Is there a better way to perfom this task in one
> step?

Try this..

Select one of the cells, start a macro recording and convert from test to general. Stop the macro recording.

Then select all your cells and run the macro.

You're brilliant Elkar ... thank you!!!!

"Elkar" wrote:

> First off, format your range to "General" or "Number"
> Enter a 1 into any blank cell.
> Copy that cell.
> Select your range of data to convert.
> Paste Special, and select "Multiply"
> Click OK
> Delete the 1 that you entered originally.
>
> By multiplying all data by 1, you've changed each value that Excel can
> recognize as a number into a number without changing the value.
>
> HTH,
> Elkar
>
> "AndreaW" wrote:
>
> > I have discovered I need to change cell formatting from Text to General in
> > order to get my VLOOKUP to work properly. The problem is is that I would
> > prefer to do this all at once as my column contains well over 3,000 entries.
> > Imagine pressing F2, Enter, F2, Enter, F2, Enter into each individual cell (I
> > can't keep the beat going!) Is there a better way to perfom this task in one
> > step?

I know this is a thread from... goodness, 13 years ago but I ran into a similar problem. Excel wasn't recognizing a date as a date format after some formulas.

Solution:

You can select the cells you need to format, then use Text to Columns in the Data tab to sort it out right. That instantly got excel to properly recognize everything as dates again for me.

nice on cryptikfox - never heard that one before and I've been using excel full on for the last 20+ years (saved me a lot of time in a kpi project I'm doing) cheers!

Very interesting and easy solution!

Thanks to share it Cryptikfox

To change all the (thousand, in my sheet, as well) cells of a column to a desired format, after giving the column the format I want (eg "general" or "number"), I tried pressing F2 and Enter simultaneously, for 2 very quick times and kept the buttons pressed and watched all the cells being changed to the format wanted.
I didn't manage it on the first try (I don't know, it has to do with synchronizing the pressings?), but it worked after 2-3 tries and is satisfying watching it being done along with your task!