Use Microsoft Excel's Special cell formats (Excel 2003/2007)

You can easily change currency values into text formatting in Excel. However, there are other number formats that prove useful for data entry, particularly for those in Accounting and Human Resources departments. If you don't know about these cell formats, you'll want to check them out. To do so, open the Format Cells dialog box by choosing Format | Cells from the menu bar. (In 2007, click on the Home tab on the ribbon, then click Format in the Cells area and choose Format Cells from the resulting dropdown list.) Then, click on the Number tab if necessary and choose Special from the Category list box. The Type list box now contains four special formats: Zip Code, Zip Code + 4, Phone Number, and Social Security Number. These formats include hyphens where they're necessary, and they also allow leading zeros to display. If you have Excel 2002/2003/2007, there's also a Locale (Location) dropdown list. If you select a locale that uses a different formatting, say for phone numbers, the formatting adjusts to match the locale.