Sounds like they're already entered as text (or some of them). Do the "fix"
in "data isn't recognized..."
http://www.officearticles.com/excel/...soft_excel.htm
************
Anne Troy
www.OfficeArticles.com


"kma11703" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I have a spreadsheet with over 2000 rows of benefits information. Two of
the
columns have social security numbers in them. I applied the special format
to
put them in standard social security format (###-##-####) but none of the
numbers change format until I double-click in each cell.

Is there an easier way to see the format without double-clicking in over
4,000 cells?!