well, may be best to explain what the formulas do..
=Left(A2,50)
looks at cell "A2" and returns the first "50" characters.
So, if the text you're workign with is in a different cell, type that cell
in the formula. If you want to have, say, the first 200 characters brought
over, change the 50 to 200.
=mid(A2,51,50)
also looks at cell A2, starts with the 51st character and brings over
through the 100th character. If you were doing 200 characters as above, you'd
type 201,200.
so, if you have multiple cells with the same problem, just type yoru formula
to the right of the first one and decide if you want to drag across your rows
or down your columns.
If you're going across rows, put a $ in front of the A (or whatever column
you're pulling from.)
If down columns, $ in front of the 2 (or whatever row you're pulling from.)
Once you've go the formulas working for your first large cell, copy and
paste them to the right of or below the next big cell.
Hope that made sense...