How do I force leading zeros in an Excel cell?

[EricKei]

I am attempting to force numeric values exported from a QuickBooks Point of
Sale 3.0 Report into an Excel spreadsheet to take on leading zeros in order
to "line up" properly when the spreadsheet is later exported to text. The
cells used are all Text format, and have been exported from QBPOS as Text
Only. I need to add four leading zeros to each one, for a total of 5 digits
per cell. I intend to use the resulting Sheet as a template for future QBPOS
Reports to export to. QBPOS itself does not have a funtion to Export to text
directly (only to Excel), which is why I am using Excel as a go-between.
There is an option which forces *trailing* zeros in cells, but I cannot find
one for *leading* zeros. Would I be better off running this through Access
instead, ie, QBPOS' Export -> Excel -> Export to Access -> Export to TXT?

Also, how would I cause the cells in each row to be Merged in such a way
(when exorted to unicode TXT) that they will all appear in one long string of
numbers, rather than as groups of numbers with spaces between them? The usual
Merge deletes all values after the first cell.

Thank you in advance for any advice offered.

 

[Barb R.]

Let's say you have the value "12" in the cell, and you want it to be
displayed as "00012". Format the cell (or cells) as Custom with format
00000.

 

[EricKei]

Let's say you have the value "12" in the cell, and you want it to be
displayed as "00012". Format the cell (or cells) as Custom with format
00000.

Thanks!