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...)
Jeff_Stubing First off, thanks for replying so quickly. Just so I'm understanding correctly. To stop excel auto formatting a csv file incorrectly. I (open a blank workbook?), then type something into an empty cell, then click the text to columns, (use delimited) and put an strange character like tilde (~ found elsewhere on keyboards outside the US), and then "bring in" your csv data. By "bring in" do you mean to select, from the data menu, "from text/CSV" and import the csv file? This doesn't work, hence why I'm putting my assumptions in brackets as I might have misunderstood your steps.
P_A_R_K_Y to cancel the current setup for text-to-columns, just select any cell with a text, goto text-to-columns, reach the screen with the options, unselected them all, or select the one you want, and then press ESC. That’s it.