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About Bill
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I can provide help with most all EXCEL questions and most all questions about writing EXCEL macros. I have been developing macros for about 10 years in EXCEL and have switched to it from Lotus 1-2-3 after about 10 years of writing macros in it. Typically, I will not write a macro for you unless it is very short because of all the details a macro has to know about to work every time all the time. Please understand that I do not know it all and will be the first to say so. As politely as possible, I don't write macros for people on this site who need one, want one, seem to imply that they need one, and/or seem to think I am expected to write one UNLESS they are very short, quick, and simple. 99% of all macros are more involved than what you think and rarely am I provided with enough specific and complete details to have the code work the first time and every time. This typically means too many follow-up emails, and subsequent macro changes due to lack of specific details, just to get those details so that the macro would work, all of which is on my own free time. The voice of experience from responding to many questions from people who ask me to write a macro for them from this site tells me this. I don't mean to come across as unhelpful but macros are usually very specific and without ALL of the specifics the macro I would write will not address all of your needs and the layout, location, formatting, conditions, etc. of your data and any related files the macro would have to work with. What seems like a simple task to you is almost always more involved than what you think to have the macro ALWAYS work in EVERY situation. If you have a macro you have already written and have a question about it then perhaps I could help with that. I am sure and hope you can and do understand.

You are here: Experts > Computing/Technology > Microsoft Software > Excel > Page breaks in text files showing in Excel

Excel - Page breaks in text files showing in Excel

Expert: Bill - 11/4/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hello Bill,

Often when I import a text file into excel it will show in front of a figure, in the same cell, a watermark like this :

This is a page break which was in the text file that was just imported. With copy and replace the sign won't work because Excel doesn't recognize the sign as such. Is there a way to avoid or replace the sign ?

I hope the question is clear to you.

Thanks in advance for your help !

Best regards,

Jelte

ANSWER: A watermark? No text files can have watermarks. So, I am confused. Is what you are referring to as a watermark the colon, ":", symbol/character?

You can remove non-printable characters, which I am assuming this is, by using the CLEAN function.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks Bill,

For your very quick reply ! Sorry about the character I inserted in the question I did ask. It did show when I wrote the question. When I got the mail with my question it didn't show anymore :-( The character I meant was a little empty square which shows in Excel. I know that this is a page break in the txt file I'm importing which shows like this little empty square. I can't replace it though. When I copy the character and paste it in find and replace function it doesn't show.

Thanks again ! Best regards,

Jelte

Answer
After you copy and paste it then you still should be able to use the CLEAN function. Per HELP on the CLEAN function:

Removes all nonprintable characters from text. Use CLEAN on text imported from other applications that contains characters that may not print with your operating system. For example, you can use CLEAN to remove some low-level computer code that is frequently at the beginning and end of data files and cannot be printed.

So, if you pasted the data in A1, for example, then in B1, for example, type:

=CLEAN(A1) then you can copy and paste special as vales this back over to A1 if you need to

This should remove the little square

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