For years now I've struggled with keeping Telephony spreadsheets and BAT telephone number data exactly as it should be without being forced into a SUM or having the preceding+/00 omitted from the beginning of the number and I've finally figured out a way to keep the data in the correct format. Please forgive me if your an Excel whiz and this is nothing new or you even know of a better way to do this but this methods works beautifully.
(In my defence 13 years of rolling out Call Manager, almost all the peers ive come across experienced similar frustrations around this exact topic)
- Select the column you wish to keep in the E164/Number format
- Under the Home tab, select Format and open Format Cells.
- Choose a Custom Category
- Under Type, If your numbers start with the international code and no leading 0(s) then type the following: +# ?/? Hit Enter
For instance:
442077056000 will be converted to +442077056000
The need to keep this data in the correct format has become ever more important with the advent of the E164 dial plan. So helpful has this simple step been to my rollouts that I just had to share it. Ive attached a screenshot also. Good luck with your builds.
