Excel - problems converting string containing numbers and text to a number

I have just tried using substitute a second time to replace the . with a , and then, in another column, =1*value(field with substituted separator) and that produces a number - finally. However there must be a more elegant way of doing this, without having to introduce three extra columns for each on I have to convert. The third column (the one containing the substituted decimal separator) is formatted as number. The first column (number + text) is General, the second is Text.