This article describes how to import a Colleague-generated .csv file into Excel without losing the 0 (zero) at the beginning of numeric information/data.

1. Run the Colleague mnemonic which will output a .csv file.  X211 will be used as an example throughout this article.
2. When it finishes, you should have a pop-up similar to:
   
3. Right-click on and choose: Save link as
4. The Save As screen should appear.  A sample screen is shown below:
5. If you wish to change the location where to save this file, you may do that here.  Be sure to note the location.
6. For Save as type:, click on the down arrow and select All files. Next, go up to File name: and add .txt. to the end. It should look something like this:. Click on  to continue.
7. Start up Excel and click on Open (left side of screen). From the Open window, click on Browse:
8. Next, navigate to the file mentioned in Steps 5 and 6.  Click on the drop-down for All Excel Files then choose All Files:

        Before:

        After:

        You should see the file now.  Highlight and click on .

        9.  The Text Import Wizard - Step 1 of 3 screen should appear:

        Click on the radio button next to Delimited and also the checkbox for My data has 

        headers, then click on .

        10. The Text Import Wizard - Step 2 0f 3 screen will come up:

        Click on the checkbox for Comma and then on .

        11.  The final screen, Text Import Wizard - Step 3 of 3, will appear:

By default every column will be in the General format.  To retain the leading zero in the data, you need to choose that particular column and click on the Text radio button. For example, please note the "SECT Sec" column above. Click on  and you will have your spreadsheet.