Sounds like the "numbers" are text which cannot be formatted for leading zeros.

Format all the General then copy an empty cell.

Select the "numbers" and EditPaste Special(in place)AddOKEsc.

Now try the leading zero formatting.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 09:21:00 -0700, TeeArr
wrote:

This is a weird one. I manipulate date received from vendors, and I've seen
my share of kinks, but this has never happened before. A worksheet has a
column of Tax ID numbers, and the format of all the cells is "General"; my
routine is to find and destroy all dashes, and then format the cells to
"Custom" (000000000.) That will provide the preceding zeroes that are
frequently lost in handling, and I find that the display and export of the
data works for my purposes. But this time, when I select all the cells
(whether I select the column or just the cells) and format Custom, the
entries that need preceding zeroes do not get them; and when I call the
format dialog again, it shows the format as "Special", language Portuguese,
type Numero da Seguranca Social. The sheet is not protected, and I can find
no conditional formatting. Does anyone have an idea where this is coming
from? Thanks--