how can I show leading zeros in excel

[Guest]

I am trying to input some numeric data into a spreadsheet, some of the
entries have leading zeros, every time I move to the next cell, Excel changes
the data by removing the leading zeros. I have tried reformating the cells in
question in Number & General, both give me the same problem. Can somebody
please help.
Using Excel 2002. Thanks.

 

[Dave Peterson]

You could either format the cell as Text (then type your data)
or you can start with an apostrophe '000123
or you can use a custom format:

Format|cells|number tab
custom
in the type box, put as many 0's as you want
000000

The first two options will make your data Text. Using the last method, you'll
still have numbers.