I am using Excel 2003. Excel is dropping the leading zeros from 12 digit UPC
numbers I paste into a spreadsheet. I know how to restore the leading zeros
using the special cell formatting option "000000000000" to make the number 12
digits, this pads the beginning of the number with leading zero's to fill it
out to 12 digits. However, I also need to drop the last digit (the check
digit) from the UPC numbers that I am pasting. When I use a formula (in this
case =LEFT(F2,LEN(F2)-1); I apply this formula to the entire column to the
right of the column with the UPC numbers [column F] and it drops the last
digit) to drop the last digit from the UPC, the numbers that are generated
unfortunately seem to have dropped the lead zeros again. And once I have
formatted this column with the formula to generate the UPC minus the check
digit, I don't seem to be able to apply a custom number format to the cells
to make them 11 digits, thus restoring the lost leading zeros. Is there any
way to make Excel quit dropping leading zeros? Or is there any way to both
have a formula applied to a column AND a custom number format? I am totally
stuck here.
Thanks for any help