Forum Discussion
Stop automatic text-to-columns formatting
Sometimes, Excel is too clever for its own good.
Select an empty cell.
On the Data tab of the ribbon, click Text to Columns.
Select Delimited, then click Next >.
Clear the check boxes of all delimiters.
Click Finish.
The problem should be gone (until the next time...)
Excel will remember the settings during a session, but when you start Excel, there shouldn't be presets.
I always do the splitting a file thing first, then other comparisons later in the next process. But this way of turning it off, while awkward, works without me having to exit Excel and re-enter.
The next to last reply in VBA code to reset after execution or to end command contains a macro that will reset Text to Columns.
If you copy that macro to a module in your Personal Macro Workbook PERSONAL.XLSB and assign it to a keyboard shortcut and/or Quick Access Toolbar button, you can reset it at any moment using one keystroke or mouse click.
- Ah, this is the same "have it split columns with no delimiters" as before, but in a macro not manually. Makes sense.
- Better yet, the splitting is part of a macro, I can just turn it off at the end of that macro! Awesome, thanks for telling me!