Do you have a list in Excel, perhaps of contact data? Do you have multiple pieces of information in a single column, but need it in two or more? This is most common with names: your report lists names in a single column, but you need the first name and last name separate.

There’s an easy feature in Excel to handle this! You start with a column like this:

Select the column or cells you want to split, then go to Data > Text to Columns on the Ribbon.

  • Choose Delimited and click Next.
  • Choose the delimiter separating the pieces of content within the single column (e.g. a space or a comma) and click Next.
  • If you need the data output as a special type, select it – otherwise General should work fine.
  • Click Finish.

Your data should be separated into columns now.

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