Remove Text Formatting in the Surfer Worksheet
It is important the data you use to create maps in Surfer are formatted as numbers. If your data is formatted as text, you can see a single quote mark (') before the number in the Surfer worksheet. The data will also be left aligned if it is formatted as text. You can manually remove text formatting in the worksheet by removing the single quote mark (') before each number. Alternatively, you can remove text formatting by:
Method 1: Text to Number Command
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Highlight all of the cells that contain numbers that are formatted as text. To change all of the columns at the same time, click the Select Entire Worksheet button in the upper left corner of the worksheet.
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Click the Data | Data | Text to Number command.
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All of the numbers in the highlighted section will be right-aligned and formatted as numbers.
Method 2: Save as .DAT File
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Open the data in the worksheet using File | Open.
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Choose File | Save | Save As.
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In the Save as type list, choose DAT Data (*.dat) file. Type a File name and click the Save button.
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Choose Tab, Comma, Semicolon, or Space as the delimiter.
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Choose (none) as the Text Qualifier (this is important - this removes the text formatting from numbers). Click OK.
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Open the new file in the worksheet, and the numbers will be right-aligned.