There's an easier way than that. If you simply type into
A1 = 6
A2 = 11.9
as pure numbers (i.e. omit the word "metres"), you can then select A1
and A2, go to the 'Format' menu 'Cells...' and on the 'Number' tab,
choose 'Custom' type number formatting.
Then, for the format string (which will by default in this instance
read 0 or 0.0 or General), type in 0.0 "metres" - i.e. zero point zero,
followed by a space, followed by quote, followed by the word metres,
followed by another quote.
Your cells will then appear like this:
A1 = 6.0 metres
A2 = 11.9 metres
BUT the underlying cell contents are purely the numeric values 6 and
11.9, and can therefore be calculated upon without having to trim the
strings out. e.g. you could total them simply with =A1+A2. Simply
apply the same formatting as described above to get the result to also
append the phrase "metres".
BizMark