Retain Numbers as Text Format When Importing.

I must import a text file. It contains numbers of varying formats. They
could include a colon and a period or just a colon... zeros at beginning and
end, etc.

I want to retain the format of the varying numbers WHEN IMPORTING a pipe
delimited text file.

How do I force Excel to import all data in the text file as TEXT. Simply
selecting format "Text" for the entire worksheet (before importing) does not
do it - that selection is overwritten.

Please test your resolution before answering.

Resolved. Select Text for the column when importing instead of assigning
format "Text" to the entire worksheet.

"xardoz" wrote:

> I must import a text file. It contains numbers of varying formats. They
> could include a colon and a period or just a colon... zeros at beginning and
> end, etc.
>
> I want to retain the format of the varying numbers WHEN IMPORTING a pipe
> delimited text file.
>
> How do I force Excel to import all data in the text file as TEXT. Simply
> selecting format "Text" for the entire worksheet (before importing) does not
> do it - that selection is overwritten.
>
> Please test your resolution before answering.

The last step before 'finish' in the import wizard has an area top, right
that says column data format and allows you to force columns to be imported
as text.

"xardoz" wrote:

> I must import a text file. It contains numbers of varying formats. They
> could include a colon and a period or just a colon... zeros at beginning and
> end, etc.
>
> I want to retain the format of the varying numbers WHEN IMPORTING a pipe
> delimited text file.
>
> How do I force Excel to import all data in the text file as TEXT. Simply
> selecting format "Text" for the entire worksheet (before importing) does not
> do it - that selection is overwritten.
>
> Please test your resolution before answering.