How about using two columns, one for the ZIP codes formatted as TEXT, (with
leading zeros which can be easily added with a helper formula), and the
second formatted as numbers so you can do whatever you intend to do with
them that you feel you can't do with them formatted as TEXT..........

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3



"jjjJackieCalifornia" wrote
in message ...
Doesn't work ... I already have data ... thousands of entries ... can't go
back and put a zero in front of each number, but thanks ...this is a
really
tricky problem.

"CLR" wrote:

Format the Zip code column as TEXT and enter the leading zero normally
as
any other character.........then FIND will "find" it...........

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3


"jjjJackieCalifornia"
wrote
in message ...
I have a large excel worksheet - zip codes, cities, states, area codes
....
I
need to be able to sort as well as find. Problem comes in with states
that
have zips starting with zero. I can get them to appear correctly as
custom
or
special, but not able to do cntrl-find and bring up ... I can't
believe I
can't figure this out ...