I want to limit the number of characters the user can imput: such as to
prevent a user from inputting more then the 10 digit phone number.

"Dave O" wrote:

When you say "limit the characters" do you mean you want to only allow
telephone numbers, or only allow numbers?

You can format the cell (on the menu, Edit Cells Special Telephone
number) so Excel will display a string of 10 numbers in (###) ###-####
format. Will that do it for you, or are you thinking of something more?