How to Convert Phone Numbers in MS Excel

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program that allows you to format the spreadsheet to fit your needs. Excel offers a variety of number formats that range from being able to convert numbers to money, zip codes, social security numbers, dates and phone numbers. Using the number format options saves time when typing a lot of data, as you do not have to put in special characters. Using numbers only Excel will automatically convert the numbers to the format you select. Formatting numbers is an easy task once you follow a few steps.

Things You'll Need

• Microsoft Excel

Instructions

1. Open Microsoft Excel. Open the file you'd like to work on by going to "File", then "Open," or begin a new workbook using the blank workbook that opens by default.

2. Select the cell that has the numbers typed to be converted to a phone number format. If you have multiple cells that need to be converted, select them all by holding the left mouse button and dragging the mouse.

3. Locate the "Format" option on the toolbar and click once. This will bring up a drop-down menu. Click on "Cells" to bring up a formatting box. You can also pres "Ctrl" + "1" to bring up the box.

4. Click "Special" on the "format cells" box. This will bring up four options on the right-hand side, click on "Phone Number" and then click "OK." This will close the box and format the number to the correctly display in phone number format.

References

• Number Formats in Microsoft Excel
• Create or Delete a Custom Number Format in Excel