How do I enter numbers starting with zero (ie, a phone number) into cells in excel without it automaticly deleting them.

Dear Lucy

Thank you for attending PowerPoint Course!

Normally when you enter a number or series of numbers Excel automatically assumes that you want to perform calculations on them in the future and therefore store them as Number format.

In order for Excel to treat your Numbers such as Telephone no. or Part No. you can do one of the following:

Before you start entering a number type ' (Apostrophe situated on the right hand side of the : (Colon) or ; (Semicolon) key. This will format the numbers as text.

A better approach will be to select all the cells that you wish to enter numeric data (Telephone, etc...) and choose Format> Cells... and in the Number Tab select Text and then press OK.

When you start entering Numbers with zeros at the beginning the zeros will remain there!!

If this reply has helped answering your query then I would request you to please mark this question as resolved. If not then you can either reply back to this question for further explanation or post a new question the forum.


Kindest Regards

Rajeev Rawat
MOS Master Instructor 2000 and 2003