Format cells with numbers and text

[oboe_joe]

i'm trying to make a spreadsheet for work and i'm having trouble. mos
of the data is pretty standardized, but there are some cases where
can't figure out how to program the "Format Cells - Custom" to displa
both numbers and text.

most of the data looks like 1234-12-123-1234, and i hit the "Forma
Cells" to where i can type in the data without the dashes and the cel
would display it with dashes. Here's the kicker...some of our dat
needs two letters after the numbers, ie, 1234-12-123-1234AB How do
program the cells to where all i have to type is the 13 or 1
alphanumeric without dashes and get it to display properly in th
cell?

Codes i've tried under the custom cell format are:
####-##-###-####??
####-##-###-####**
####-##-###-####;"";""
####-##-###-####;"@"
####-##-###-####"@"

I guess i need to find out what symbol to use as a variable for text.

Thank

 

[Guest]

As soon as you enter text it is no longer a number and custom formatting no
longer applies. Assuming that you don't need to do any calcualations with
this feild you could try changing the number to Hexadecimal wihch would allow
you Alpha charachters up to "F" but if you need characters after F then you
are hooped...

Hope this helps...