Excel geeks - I NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED you!

[bloss]

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Which version of Excel - 2003 or 2007 (or something else)?

Have you tried setting it to 'general' - I think that has worked for me in the past. If not, just ignore me and wait till someone with more geeky skills than me comes along ....

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type an apostrophe before the first 3 - the cell will then show exactly what's keyed in IYSWIM

If you put and apostrophe before your text it will tell the cell it is text

So try putting '3E1 in the cell

This should work

Great minds vinegar

sorry x-posts

Yes, you should have entered the codes as '3E1, '3E2, '3E3 to begin with.

Assuming you now have a long list to change, the quickest and best method is probably to turn on AutoFilter and filter your selection down to one malformed code at a time, correcting to '3E1 (or whatever) in the top instance and then copying that down through the selection.

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or just key in '3E1 then hover over the bottom right hand corner of the cell, hold down the right button and drag down, then release and select "fil series"

... meant to add - hover over the bottom right hand corner of the cell until the cursor becomes a little black cross... then right click and drag down...