Get rid of automatic abbreviations?

**MyMelody** · 12-30-2010, 03:43 PM

Hi!
I'm working with Microsoft Excel 2003, and I'm imputing serial numbers. The problem is that, every time I put in a serial number, excel abbreviates it. It looks like I can fix this problem for serial numbers not ending in zeros by just increasing the cell size, but not with serial numbers ending in zeros.

For example,
I want excel to display a number as: 605388000000
But it keeps displaying as:
6.05E+11

I would much obliged if some one could give me advice. ^_^
Thank you!

**TMS** · 12-30-2010, 03:47 PM

Try formatting the cell as text or putting a single quote in front of the number.

Regards

**DonkeyOte** · 12-30-2010, 03:47 PM

If you format the cell as Number (0 decimals) it should display in full.

Be aware that Excel can only store 15 significant digits - if you need to store numbers longer than this with significance then you must format as Text prior to entering the value manually.

**ConneXionLost** · 12-30-2010, 03:49 PM

Try formatting the serial number column as text.

Cheers,

**DonkeyOte** · 12-30-2010, 03:51 PM

Just to be clear - given the specific example there is no need to store as Text given the Serial is only 12 digits in length.

**MyMelody** · 12-30-2010, 07:34 PM

Hi! Thank you, formatting the cells as number fixed my problem.

However, I found that I have run into another problem. :P
When I save my file, for some reason, it does not save my formatting.
It says:

"Document.csv may contain features that are not compatible with csv (Comma Delimited)"

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
:3

**shg** · 12-30-2010, 07:58 PM

CSV files are text files -- they have no formatting. As long as your numbers are 15 or fewer digits, you can restore the number representation by reformatting the column as DO suggested after you import the file -- the underlying value is correct.