How do you successfully transpose rows into columns in Excel?

[jenniferhelen]

I have been searching threads for a while and found the instructions listed below many times, however when I get to step 6 and select to save, I always receive the following error, "The information cannot be pasted because the copy area and the paste area are not the same size and shape". Does this function only work if the number or rows and number of columns are the same number? Does anyone have any suggestions for me? I greatly appreaciate any help you can provide.
Thanks,
Jennifer

Transpose the Data in Microsoft Excel
1. Start Microsoft Excel and open the spreadsheet that you created in step 5 of the "Export the Data to Microsoft Excel" section.
2. Press CTRL+HOME to go to cell A1. Press CTRL+SHIFT+END to select all of the data.
3. On the Edit menu, click Copy.
4. On the Insert menu, click Worksheet.
5. On the Edit menu, click Paste Special.
6. In the Paste Special dialog box, click to select the Transpose check box, and then click OK.
7. On the Format menu, point to Sheet, and then click Rename. Type a name for the sheet that contains the transposed data. If you want, click Save As on the File menu to export the data directly to text from Microsoft Excel.
8. Save and close the workbook, and then quit Microsoft Excel.

[NeoPa]

It seems to me that you are not following the instructions properly. You seem to have some cells selected before you try the Paste. This is not what the instructions say!

You must have only a single cell selected for the paste to work smoothly. Please try this (or the instructions posted exactly as stated) and I'm sure this will work for you. I'm confident because I've used it many times myself. Please let us know how you get on.

PS. Although we have no Excel forum as such, I will move this to the Access / VBA forum where we often deal with questions pertaining to Excel issues.

[jenniferhelen]

Thanks NeoPa for your reply again.
I don't have any fields selected when I paste and I found the transpose function to work successfully when I reduce the amount of data to 100 columns. I wonder if I am running into a column limitation in Excel? If the transpose works successfully I should have 317 columns. I am working with Excel 2003. Are you aware of any limitation here?
Thanks again
Jennifer

[AJMegaughin]

Jennifer,
I believe your suspicion is correct.
If memory servers, Excel 2003 allows you to create columns up as far as column IV. If you work it out this equates to column 256.

AJM.

[NeoPa]

Sorry Jennifer I missed this.

I can confirm the previous post. Excel only has 256 columns. This has been true since before the Rows were increased from 16K to 64K (in 97 I think), and maybe before then even.

I'm afraid you've hit a barrier there.

[jenniferhelen]

Thanks everyone for your help.
Jennifer