How to Split a Cell in Excel on PC or Mac

Open Excel on your PC or Mac. It’s in the All Apps area of the Start Windows Start menu in Windows, and in the Applications folder in macOS.

Open the workbook with the data you want to split. To do this, press Control+O, select the file, then click Open.

Click the Data tab. It’s at the top of Excel, near the center.

Click and drag the mouse over the cell(s) you want to split. This highlights the cell(s).

Click Text to Columns. It’s at the center of the ribbon bar at the top of Excel. A dialog box will pop up.

Select Delimited or Fixed width. If you’re not sure which to choose, check out the preview at the bottom of the window. Delimited: This option separates the values of a cell based a delimiter such as a comma or tab. Each side of the delimiter will go into its own cell. Fixed width: Separates the values into columns with spaces between the fields.

Click Next. It’s at the bottom of the window.

Select a deliminator. Check the box in the “Delimiters” that describes where you want the separation to occur. For example, if you want to separate a first name from a last name (and the two names are separated by a space), check the “Space” option. Check the preview at the bottom of the window to make sure it looks right.

Click Next. It’s at the bottom of the window.

Select a column data format. Choose the option that best describes the format in the “Column data format” box.

Click the arrow next to the “Destination” drop-down menu. Now you can select where to place the split data.

Highlight the cells where you want to put the results. For example, if you want to overwrite the original cells with the new format, click and drag the mouse over the same cells you did earlier.

Click the small arrow. It’s at the far-right side of the collapsed “Convert Text to Columns Wizard” box. This re-opens the wizard in its normal size.

Click Finish. It’s at the bottom-right corner of the window. It’s at the bottom-right corner of the window. The selected cells are now split based on the selected delimiter, and the output now appears in the sheet.