Let's say you've lobbied to have your office adopt this fancy contact software, the kind that folks use to maintain sales leads, customer lists, and so on. The staff has diligently entered info into this application, and now the company has delegated the task of exporting all of this contact info to a spreadsheet. The only problem is, when you do this, you realize that all of the phone numbers don't look very phone number-y - they look like random 10 digit strings!

Excel Customize Number Format takes your spreadsheet and re-formats phone numbers into a phone number format of your choice. You can select a group of cells (the Phone # Column would be a good place to start) and then have the application have its way with it - your telephone numbers (and only your phone numbers) will be transformed into the "right" format, including parentheses and dashes all in the correct locations. You can select a predefined telephone number style, or specify your own custom style as you please.

International users, don't despair! Excel Customize Number Format works with any number of digits, so if your phone numbers are more than 10 digits long, you can still use the program!