Excel-Save Custom Formatting

[CarlaK]

In my spreadsheet, I have a column of numbers that have a lot of leading zeros. I formatted them with the Custom Format and it added the leading zeros. However, when I close the workbook, which is saved in csv format, and then reopen, all the leading zeros are gone again. Is there a way to save it and have them save?!

[BobBridges]

Yes, but not in CSV format. CSV is text only, a simple way of passing data (but not formatting, formulas or much else) from Excel to other applications. Save it in any but one of the text-only formats and it should keep all that formatting for you. But of course in one of those formats, you probably wouldn't be able to read them with some other (non-Office) application.

But if you just want to open it in Excel again, don't bother with CSV; save it as XLS, or XLSX, or whatever is the default format for your version of Excel, and you shouldn't have any trouble.