Text to columns

SarahD33 

As this seems to be a problem many people (including myself) have encountered...

How about executing a VBA procedure (shown below) to split the text?  You would not have to save the VBA procedure in the workbook; you could either create it in your PERSONAL.xlsb file, or just store it in the workbook temporarily, and delete the code after use.

Sub SplitTextToColumns()
'   This procedure will split the text in a column of the currently-
'       selected row into separate adjacent columns in the same row.
'       The split occurs where a particular delimiter is found, which
'       is specified by the user.
'   The procedure splits the text in all rows from the current row down
'       until it reaches an empty cell (or a cell with an empty string
'       value) in the source-text column.  Code is included to warn the
'       user if some non-empty string value is about to be overwritten.

    Const strPROCEDURE_NAME As String = "SplitTextToColumns"
    
    Dim strWorksheetName    As String
    '
    Dim strMessage      As String
    Dim in4UserResponse As VbMsgBoxResult
    '
    Dim strDelimiter  As String
    Dim strSourceCol    As String
    '
    Dim in4CurrentRow   As Long
    Dim objRange        As Range
    Dim strCellContent  As String
    Dim strPieces()     As String
    Dim in4PieceIndex   As Long
    Dim in4RelativeCol  As Long
    
    '----   Determine the active worksheet and row.
    strWorksheetName = ActiveSheet.Name
    in4CurrentRow = ActiveCell.Row
    
    '----   Get confirmation and option choices from the user.
    strMessage = "Are you sure you want to split cell contents" _
            & " in worksheet " & strWorksheetName _
            & ", starting at row " & CStr(in4CurrentRow) _
            & " and overwriting adjacent columns to the right?"
    in4UserResponse = MsgBox(strMessage, vbQuestion Or vbYesNo _
            Or vbDefaultButton2, strPROCEDURE_NAME)
    If in4UserResponse = vbNo Then
        Exit Sub
    End If
    '  --   Prompt for the column.
    strMessage = "Which column contains the text to be split?  (Enter" _
            & " the letter(s).)"
    strSourceCol = InputBox(strMessage, strPROCEDURE_NAME, "A")
    If strSourceCol = "" Then
        strMessage = "That's required information.  Quitting."
        Call MsgBox(strMessage, vbInformation Or vbOKOnly, strPROCEDURE_NAME)
        Exit Sub
    ElseIf Len(strSourceCol) > 3 Then
        strMessage = "Invalid input.  Quitting."
        Call MsgBox(strMessage, vbInformation Or vbOKOnly, strPROCEDURE_NAME)
        Exit Sub
    ElseIf Len(strSourceCol) = 3 _
    And UCase$(strSourceCol) >= "XED" Then
        strMessage = "Too far to the right.  Quitting."
        '...that far out, the text is likely to be split beyond the
        '   available columns.
        Call MsgBox(strMessage, vbInformation Or vbOKOnly, strPROCEDURE_NAME)
        Exit Sub
    Else
        strSourceCol = UCase$(strSourceCol)
    End If
    '  --   Prompt for the delimiter.
    strMessage = "Enter the delimiter character, or TAB or LF or CR" _
            & " for a special character:"
    strDelimiter = InputBox(strMessage, strPROCEDURE_NAME)
    If strDelimiter = "" Then
        strMessage = "That's required information.  Quitting."
        Call MsgBox(strMessage, vbInformation Or vbOKOnly, strPROCEDURE_NAME)
        Exit Sub
    ElseIf UCase$(strDelimiter) = "TAB" Then
        strDelimiter = Chr(9) 'tab character
    ElseIf UCase$(strDelimiter) = "LF" Then
        strDelimiter = Chr(10)    'line feed character
    ElseIf UCase$(strDelimiter) = "CR" Then
        strDelimiter = Chr(13)    'carriage return character
    ElseIf Len(strDelimiter) > 1 Then
        strMessage = "Invalid input.  Quitting."
        Call MsgBox(strMessage, vbInformation Or vbOKOnly, strPROCEDURE_NAME)
        Exit Sub
    Else
        'Use the value in strDelimiter as-is.
    End If
    
    '----   Process the current row and following rows.
    With Worksheets(strWorksheetName)
        Do
            Set objRange = .Range(strSourceCol & CStr(in4CurrentRow))
            objRange.Select
            '
            strCellContent = Selection.Value
            If strCellContent = "" Then
                '...we're done.
                strMessage = "Stopping at 'empty' cell in row " _
                        & CStr(in4CurrentRow)
                Call MsgBox(strMessage, vbInformation Or vbOKOnly)
                Exit Do
            End If
            '  --   Do the work for this row.
            strPieces = Split(strCellContent, strDelimiter)
            For in4PieceIndex = 0 To UBound(strPieces)
                in4RelativeCol = in4PieceIndex + 1
                strCellContent = objRange.Offset(0, in4RelativeCol).Value
                If strCellContent <> "" Then
                    strMessage = "WARNING! Row " & CStr(in4CurrentRow) _
                            & " is not empty in a destination cell.  Is It" _
                            & " OK to overwrite the contents of this row?"
                    in4UserResponse = MsgBox(strMessage _
                            , vbExclamation Or vbYesNoCancel Or vbDefaultButton2 _
                            , strPROCEDURE_NAME)
                    If in4UserResponse = vbNo Then
                        GoTo NextRow
                    ElseIf in4UserResponse = vbCancel Then
                        Exit Do
                    Else
                        '...continue with the user's permission.
                    End If
                End If
                objRange.Offset(0, in4RelativeCol).Value = _
                        strPieces(in4PieceIndex)
            Next in4PieceIndex
NextRow:
            '  --   Advance a row.
            in4CurrentRow = in4CurrentRow + 1
            Application.Goto Reference:="R" & CStr(in4CurrentRow) _
                    & "C1"
            DoEvents
        Loop
    End With

End Sub

If you find that your invisible delimiter is not a line feed character (LF) or a carriage return character (CR), you can add code following the comment "Prompt for the delimiter" to handle a different delimiter.

2023-03 addendum: Before/during September 2022 (shortly before I posted this solution), Microsoft added the built-in function TEXTSPLIT to the latest versions of Excel. TEXTSPLIT also supports the use of multiple delimiters in one pass. So while the VBA code above is still usable (and of course, can be customized for special circumstances), the use of TEXTSPLIT might be a better, quicker choice.

SarahD33 

Hello Sarah, could you provide some of your data to be able to perform an analysis here. Without the original data that does not work, it can not work.

If you can't share documents here, then please use another file sharing service and post the link here.

BTW: What is CTRL+ J for a shortcut. Where does it do something? Is it a character or formatting in a program? Is it from the Mac? It doesn't seem to do anything in Excel on Windows.