To add to Stefi's reply number 1, the cell needs to be formatted as text
*before* you enter the number. Once Excel has stored the data as a number,
rather than text, then reformatting the cell subsequently as text won't
retrieve the leading zeroes which have already been lost.
--
David Biddulph

"Stefi" wrote in message
...
I cannot test it in Excel 97 but maybe some of the methods available in
Excel
2003 work also in 97.

1. Format cell like text.
2. Put an apostrophe (') before digits: '01102008
3. If all cells are of the same length (say 8 digits) then custom format
cells with format code "00000000" (8 zero digits)

Regards,
Stefi

"QV" ezt írta:

How can I get in a cell a zero as a first digit, for instance 01102008?
I'm using Excel 97. Thanks in advance!
QV