Split Full Names in Excel Spreadsheet

When you receive an Excel file with full names, you might want to split the full names into separate columns. Using the Excel program you can quickly separate the names.

Note: There are slight variations between Office 2003 and 2007. The basic functions remain the same.

The fastest way to is highlight Column A
 

This is a small sample of a full names spreadsheet.

Insert two columns to the right of Column A
Highlight Column B / Right click and select Insert / Columns
Repeat one more time until you have two empty columns

Highlight Column A
Office 2000-2003 Click Data / Text to Columns
Office 2007 Click Data Ribbon / Data Tools Group/ Text to Column icon
Depending on which version of Excel you are using, there are slight changes in the screens

The following displays your spreadsheet

Click Delimited
Look at your data  / Next

Select the type of delimiter / Select Space / Finish

A pop-up displays / OK

The names are now split into three columns.

The last step is to rename the columns
Column A now becomes Salutation
Column B now becomes First Name
Column C now becomes Last Name

The data is now converted.

The whole procedure takes less than 3-5 minutes for a large database.

Created:  July 05, 2012

Sr. Arlene Callahan
Training Manager
Rivier University
Nashua, NH 03060

E-mail: acallahan@rivier.edu