It sounds as though you need to put into a text form and not just format it
try
=LEFT(A1,3)&"-"&MID(A1,4,3)&"-"&RIGHT(A1,3)

"Brad Stevenson" wrote:

I am having issues formatting a cell.

Basically - I have a data entry sheet. These values carry into a government
supplied form which I will be printing off and sending in. The data entry
sheet is mine - the government form was supplied by the government.

I can enter formulas into the government form, but am not allowed to format
the cells.

The format for the particular cell I am working on is
###-###-###

In the data entry cell I can format it to receive the ###-###-### format
properly... however, when linking the government form to this cell, it
formats it
#########

I have been able to get around this by formating the data entry cell to
accept text and then typing in ###-###-### (dashes and all).

However I find this cumbersome. IS there any conceivable way around this?

Brad