hi,
numbers with leading zeros should be entered as text.
when entering the number, enter an apostrophe first.
like this '04581. excel will hide the apostrophe and
keep the leading zero.
you could enter a custom format to force excel to show a
zero but this would only show a zero in the cell. in the
formula bar, the zero would not be there. in other words,
formating does not change the data. it changes the way it
looks on screen.

-----Original Message-----
doing worksheet for ordering zeros at beginning of
numbers disappear. How do
I format to keep zero in group of numbers ie 04581
.