How to Prevent Excel From Dropping Off Leading Zeros

1. Open your Microsoft Excel document or a new Excel document.
2. Select the cells you would like to modify. If you wish to modify the entire spreadsheet to show leading zeros, click the diamond icon in the upper left of the workbook window, or click the 'Edit' drop-down menu and choose 'Select All.' If you want to select only a portion of the cells, click the leading cell and drag to highlight additional cells. Also, you can click the letter at the top of a column to highlight an individual column. You can do the same for rows by clicking the number at the beginning of a row.
3. Select the 'Format' drop-down menu. Choose 'Cells...' or 'Format Cells,' depending on the release of Excel you are running. A window will pop up.
4. Choose the 'Number' menu within the 'Format Cells' window. Scroll down through the list of various categories and select 'Text.' This will allow any data put into a cell to be displayed as it was input. Click 'OK.'