If it's text, you may have to diddle around to convert it. Insert 3 columns
to the right of it and try Text to Columns (see link below) on it.
http://www.officearticles.com/excel/...soft_excel.htm
************
Anne Troy
www.OfficeArticles.com

"kma11703" wrote in message
...
Thank you so much, Anne. That did the trick! Now, I just realized another
column has a similar problem. It's a column of Birthdates, but the dates
are
set up as YYYY-MM-DD ..... is there a way to format that column without
getting a cell full of #####?

"Anne Troy" wrote:

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?!