asked on

Activate cell

I have a large spreadsheet with 100,000 rows and in one column we have variations of numbers and text numbers. We formatted the whole column as text to enable vlookup to another worksheet for a column of similarly formatted combinations, formatted as text. The primary column needs every cell of text activated. We use F2 then enter on every cell. This is tedious and we need another way to activate all these cells to acknowledge the text, so the Vlookup will work properly.
Please help.

Norie

Do you mean you want to convert a column of text to numbers?

Aqusenu

ASKER

No. we have a column of combination numbers and text with numbers we formatted as all text. The format is not activating the cells. We must click into every cell with a mouse or F2 to then click enter to activate the cell.

Saqib Husain

Try

Select a blank cell
do a copy (Ctrl-c)
Select your data
Do a paste-special with the "Add" option

Saqib Husain

or

select your data
ctrl-c
pastespecial with the "Values" option

Aqusenu

ASKER

There are 100,000 lines to do this for. Looking for something more automatic like VBA script or macro or other excel function that will work.
F2, enter is the fastest right now, but 100,000 lines is going to take a few days.

Saqib Husain

select your 100,000 lines data
ctrl-c
pastespecial with the "Values" option

Aqusenu

ASKER

the simple thing, I think, would be a macro, to select the cell, f2, enter, then move down 1 cell. Not sure how to write this exactly

Saqib Husain

You do not need VBA for this. Just select your entire data and do as I have spelled above.

SOLUTION