That makes sense, too. Personally, I like the numberformat approach, but it's
(obviously) a choice for the original poster.

My point was that getting rid of those leading apostrophes isn't as simple as
edit|replace. They can be a pain.

Gary''s Student wrote:

Hi Dave:

The only reason I suggested the apostrophe is that once the dashes are
removed, leading zeros will be preserved.
--
Gary''s Student - gsnu200749

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

I think replacing it with nothing (leaving it blank) would be better than that
apostrophe. Those leading apostrophes can be difficult to remove--well, if they
have to be removed later.

Gary''s Student wrote:

Edit Find =
replace with '

Just replace the = sign with an apostrophe.
--
Gary''s Student - gsnu200749

"Gina K" wrote:

Hello,

I converted a spreadsheet from 123 to Excel and some of my SSN's are
evaluating as formulas. (When I look at the cell contents in the formula
bar, some cells have the equal sign preceeding the SSN.) Is there an easy
way to remove the equal sign?

Ideally, I want to store the numbers as 123456789, not 123-45-6789.

Thank you.

--

Dave Peterson


--

Dave Peterson