How to Convert Numerals Into Words in MS Excel
Microsoft Excel is spreadsheet software that offers a wide variety of preprogrammed functions. Unfortunately, the ability to convert numerals into English word equivalents is not among these. Excel's companion program, Microsoft Visual Basic, allows you to program your own functions into Excel, and using this function you can program Excel to convert numerals into their text equivalents. Note that because this function is not a preprogrammed Excel formula, it tends to have glitches and Excel offers no support through its "Help" function. This formula only offers conversions for whole numbers through 999 or dollar amounts.
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Instructions
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Open any Excel document and press the "Alt" and "F11" keys at the same time. This launches the Visual Basic editor.
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Click "Insert" in the top menu, then select "Module" from the drop-down menu.
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Click the link titled "Microsoft Support: Create SpellNumber" in the Resources section of this article. Highlight the text in the blue box on that page with your mouse, and then press "Ctrl" and "C" at the same time to copy that information.
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Switch back to your Visual Basic window and click inside the Module box. Press "Ctrl" and "V" at the same time to paste the copied text there. Close Visual Basic and return to your Excel document.
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Select a cell near the number you want to convert and type "=GetDigit(" without the quotation marks, then click in the cell with the number you want to convert and press "Enter." This only works for single digit numbers, so use "=GetTens(" or "=GetHundreds(" for higher numbers, respectively. Using "=SpellNumber" will allow you to numbers and decimals up into the trillions, but will spell them out in currency format, such as "Five dollars and fifty cents" for 5.5.
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Convert a full column of numbers by inserting a blank column to the right of your number column if there is not one already (right-click on the column header and select "Insert"). Type your function into the cell to the right of your first number in the column to convert that number to text. Click once in the cell with the function, then hover your mouse over the lower right corner of that cell until your pointer becomes a small plus sign. Click and hold your mouse, then drag it down alongside the rest of the column of numbers you want to convert.
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Tips & Warnings
Once you become familiar with this function, you can edit it in the Visual Basic module to meet your needs, such as by removing the monetary notations from the SpellNumber function.
References
Resources
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