Maybe you could use a custom format of:
"*"General"*";"*"-General"*";"*"General"*";"*"General"*"

positive;negative;0;text





Don wrote:

I'd like to add asterisk mark automatically at begining and end of what I type.
I formatted a cell as custom format with "*"?"*" and typed 123-456-789 but
it won't work. If I just type numbers, for instance, 123, it works. Help

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Dave Peterson