Format in Excel 365 2013 2010 2007 2003

Import a text file to an Excel spreadsheet

Often you need to import data to the Excel spreadsheet from a text file. Microsoft Excel offers a Text Import Wizard to import data from different text file formats:

Import a structured text file to an Excel spreadsheet

When you import data from a text file to the Excel spreadsheet, Microsoft Excel launches a Text Import Wizard to help you to import data correctly. Here you can import all or some data from text files of different formats:

How to remove the diamond with question mark symbol

When you paste or import data into the Excel spreadsheet, you might notice unusual symbols like a diamond with a question mark. The replacement character � (often a black diamond with a white question mark or an empty square box) represents an unknown, unrecognized or unrepresentable character:

Protecting workbook elements

Protecting a workbook is different from protecting the Excel file with a password to prevent reading/writing or locking the spreadsheet elements to prevent editing. Workbook protection forbids other users to add, move, rename or delete worksheets and defends against viewing hidden worksheets or hiding worksheets.

How to create a dependent drop-down list

The drop-down list is a handy feature provided by Excel data validation tools. Drop-down menus limit the possible choices and help to avoid mistakes. However, not so many Excel users know the Source field of the Data Validation dialog is a formula field. Formulas in the Source field should return the list of the values, but they are not necessarily a range or a list of options.

How to create a computable drop-down list

Dynamic, dependable, conditional, or calculated drop-down list in Excel implies that the contents of the drop-down list for the current cell should depend on values in the other cell and change dynamically when the value of the controlling cell changes.

Creating a drop-down list in a cell

Manual data entry into spreadsheets and especially entering data into text cells leads to many errors. Excel data validation tools allow you to reduce the inaccuracy of Excel data entry by restricting the set of possible values to a pre-defined list. Users can select the item from a drop-down list with few choices, instead of typing text into the data entry form template.

Change the decimal point to a comma or vice versa

When you import data into Excel spreadsheets from Internet pages or CSV files, Excel fails to recognize some numbers and converts them to the default text type. Temporarily changing Excel settings helps to reduce the amount of manual work and the number of errors on replacing comma to point, dot to comma, semicolon to comma, etc. Also, you need to change decimal delimiter settings for printing or exporting data for international users.

How to hide the cell values in Excel without hiding cells

Conditional formatting of Excel cells simplifies highlighting values by adding color scales, data bars, sparklines, and in-cell icons to the cell. The exact values of the highlighted cells are rarely meaningful and may even interfere with the perception of information. Custom cell format allows hiding values of such cells without hiding the cells.

How to change comma to decimal point and vice versa in Excel

Because of different standards of different countries and cultures, there is a lot of situations when you need to change commas to dots, decimal points or dots, decimal points to commas in an Excel spreadsheet: