Inserting a leading zero

Mike,

I apologize for once again getting lost in the discussions, or forgetting where I am. The same answer applies, you'll need to change "Numbers" to "Pages" to figure out my intent, I guess. This happens to me a lot and I'm sorry you suffered 🙂

Table cells, wherever you find them, must be formatted. The default format is Automatic, and the program tries to figure out what type of variable you intend. If you type what looks like a number, even with a leading zero, Numbers guesses that you want it to be treated like a number. Of course, we mostly treat numbers by not showing any leading zeros. With Text, we display it just as it was entered, hence you want to format your cells as Text.

Go to the Table Inspector in Pages and use the Format Tab. I don't have Pages 08 on this computer, so I'm again being a bit sloppy in not being able to give you an exact step-by-step, but you should be able to find your way.

Jerry

Hi Mike,

To assure that your table cell(s) display exactly what you typed, Format them as Text prior to making your input.

Jerry

Mike,

I'd suggest that you download the Numbers User Guide PDF. There's a link in the Numbers Help Menu.

I will only take you a couple of hours to read through it and you'll find that it clears up many questions about Numbers and spreadsheets in general if you're a beginner.

Every cell in a Numbers Table has a format. One of the format options is "Text". Text is a type of value, dates are another, as are numbers. I wasn't suggesting that you insert Text Boxes into your table, but that your format table cells to accept your input as Text rather than as, say, Numeric values. This may not seem immediately clear since a phrase of text can certainly contain numbers and dates. The point is that if we want a piece of text to be treated as nothing more than text, we must tell the program that. We do this by making format selections in the Cells Inspector.

Regards,

Jerry

Thanks for the feedback, Mike.

A bit more info... In Numbers 09 and Pages 09, you can keep your input formatted as a Number and still display the leading zero by using a special formatting option called Custom Format. I suppose this enhancement will continue to be available in future editions.

Jerry

Message was edited by: Jerrold Green1

Jerry said Text not Text boxes.
Select the cells or column >Use the Inspector palette > Table tab > Format > Cell Format > Text. Then write your numbers starting with the zeros.