large numbers in excel

[bdaughtry]

I have a barcode scanner running windows ce 5.0. I am trying to scan barcodes with 18 digits directly into excel. Unfortunatly since the number is so long, it shows up as garbage. I know I can put an apostrophe in the cell but I don't want to do that on each cell. I have to scan 7000 boxes and this would take a long time. Oh yea this program is called Planmaker 2008. Its a 3rd party excel type program for windows ce. It has almost all the features that ms excel has except the ability to format an entire row as text. So is there a function or a formula or something that would allow me to scan these large numbers in?

Thanks

 

[NBVC]

I have a barcode scanner running windows ce 5.0. I am trying to scan barcodes with 18 digits directly into excel. Unfortunatly since the number is so long, it shows up as garbage. I know I can put an apostrophe in the cell but I don't want to do that on each cell. I have to scan 7000 boxes and this would take a long time. Oh yea this program is called Planmaker 2008. Its a 3rd party excel type program for windows ce. It has almost all the features that ms excel has except the ability to format an entire row as text. So is there a function or a formula or something that would allow me to scan these large numbers in?

Thanks

Excel Precision is up to 15 digits.. so that is probably why you might be getting problems.

Maybe try preformatting the column as TEXT.. then scan in.

 

[bdaughtry]

Ok I figured it out. You have to do it in this order. 1. format the column as text. 2. paste the data in the column with "paste special" and choose text. This works fine but it doesn't help me to scan directly into the cell. So I am now scanning into word pad, then I use steps 1 and 2 after I download the file to my desktop.

Thanks