Thanks for your help!

These 16 digit numbers are Customer Account numbers and will never be used
as numbers. They may as well be alpha characters.

Is there a way in xl to change the default paste functionality.

Is there a key board shortcut for Paste-special-text?

We do this cutting and pasting hundreds of times each day and this bug in xl
is very costly.

I wonder if the programable button on a 3 button mouse could be programed to
do such a thing as paste-special-text

"IanRoy" wrote:

Hi, Thuferhawat;
Yes, that is what I would expect. Formatting the target cell beforehand
would have no effect, since Paste will overwrite it. Formatting the source
cell should give you better results.
Here are the results of my experiments:
1) Enter 16 digit number, copy, paste: scientific.
2) Format source as text, then enter number, copy, paste: 16 digits and a
warning.
3) Enter number, format source as text, copy, paste: scientific.
(In all cases formatting the target cell beforehand should have no effect,
because the default paste is paste all, so the source format is pasted as
well, and that is what I found.)
4) Format source as number, either before or after entering the number,
copy, paste: 16 digits, no error warning. This would seem to be your best
option, unless you need the 16 digit number formatted as text for another
reason, in which case, go with example "2)."
Regards,
IanRoy.


"Thuferhawat" wrote:

I did format the cell as text before I pasted.

After formating the cell as TEXT I pasted.

Prior to pasting the 16 digit number into the cell I formated the cell as
text.

I followed these procedures:
1. Format the cell as text.
2. paste the 16 digit number into the cell
Result = 16th digit converted to zero, displayed as scientific notation.




"thuferhawat" wrote:

I did format the cell as text before I did the cut and paste.
That is what is so frustrating.
I think that the clipboard is giving it a type of numberic and then when xl
gets it it must convert that cell to numberic no matter what you've have told
it to do.

I'll will try to do a paste-special-values but that will slow us down. We
do hundreds of these everyday and this bug in xl is costing us.

Do you know of a keyboard shortcut for paste-special-values ?



"Chip Pearson" wrote:

Format the cell as Text before pasting the data.


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com


"Thuferhawat" wrote in
message
...
how do I keep 16 digit numbers as text in excel?
I format the cells as text ahead of time but when I cut and
paste the
numbers in the last digit is converted to a zero and it is
displayed in
scientific notation.