You have two options

I. Enter the numbers with an apostrophe at the beginning. This will force
the cell to be text.
Example:
entering '01234 will result in 01234
Actually the cell will equal the text string "01234". "01234" does not
equal 1234.

II. Enter a custom number format using zeros to signifie the number of
digits. This will keep the cell as a number and show leading zeros.
Example:
Using a format of
00000
entering 123 will result in 00123. The value of the cell will equal the
number 123 but will show as with the leading zeros (ie 00123).

I hope this helps.

"Teresa-Hot Iron" wrote:

I am trying to do a spread sheet in Excel that requires me to put in item
numbers that begin with the number 0. However, when I type in the # and hit
enter, the 0 goes away. How do I format the cells to keep the 0?
Thanks!!