I receive bulk orders via an Excel spreadsheet, containing many individual
orders with reference numbers.

The reference numbers may be 7-9 digits long, however the field needs to
have 10 digits. The format is set to customize: 0000000000. In this manner,
we always see the 10 digits regardless of the actual number.

The problem we have is that we bulk-load this spreadsheet through a specific
custome built bulk-loader. This reference number field must have 10 actual
digits, not format digits. Therefore a number such as 00865243 becomes
865243 and then will not run through the bulk loader.

A work around is to format the column as text and then insert the leading
zeros manually. This is ok, when the order is between 5 and 20, however we
sometimes get 1500-2000 orders at a time. Manually adding the zeros will not
work.

I have tried converting into comma deliminated, and it still dropped the
leading zeros.

Any suggestions you have will be greatly appreciated.