If you’ve ever pasted data into a Google Sheets spreadsheet and were frustrated to see the data did not split up nicely into columns, help is one the way. Google Apps is rolling out a feature (during March 2016) that makes it easy for a non-spreadsheet wonk to re-format the data so that it looks and works the way you want.
The Problem | People who use spreadsheets all day, everyday, know how to manipulate (or “clean up”) the data before pasting it into a spreadsheet. Those people know how to use a spreadsheet far better than the rest of us earthlings. When the rest of us paste data into a spreadsheet and it doesn’t appear correctly, we start manually cutting and pasting the information into the cells where we want them to appear.
Background | Spreadsheet power users and the developers who create the software don’t see the data as you do, but, rather they see chunks of information (words, numbers, etc.) split up into their own spaces by commas, semicolons, periods, spaces, and other types of “separators.” A problem can occur when data that is split up using one kind of separator (commas, for example) is pasted into a spreadsheet that uses another type of separator (semi-colons, for example).
Solution | Google Sheets is rolling out a feature that will have a point-and-click way to separate the text and numbers into the cells you want — automagically. The animated screen grab below shows how.
(Click on the image for a larger view.)
When | The feature will be rolling out during March, 2016.
Via | Google Apps Help Center