I have a spreadsheet with a list of names in it. They’re combined names and surnames, but I’d like to split them into seperete columns, one for name and one for surname. How do I do that?

It’s common to find Excel spreadsheets where names have been entered in a single column rather than having separate columns for the forename and surname. Using separate columns looks a little complicated but makes the spreadsheets more versatile.

However, there is a quick way to split the names into several columns. Select the columns by clicking on the letter at the top. Click on the Data menu and select Text to Columns. Select the top option, Delimited, in the window that appears and click Next. You can enter anything you like here, a colon, the letters hgh or a comma. Select the characters that are dividing the text – normally this will be a space.

If there is a character separating the text that isn’t on the list, select Other and enter the character in the text box to the right. A line will appear in the preview section at the bottom to show how the text will be split. Click on Next. This screen can be used to specify the kind of information in the columns. Most of the time you can leave it set to General and click Finish.