Is it posible to aply a mask to a field?

[paliman]

Hi all. Here's my problem.
I need to type lots of invoices numbers in order to generate a tax report. Due to requirements of our tax administration department, they should be formatted as ####-########
Most of the times, only the last digit before the "-" and the last 3 or 4 digits will have a value while the rest will be zeros.Something like:
0001-00000123
0001-00004563
0000-00000650
Obviously, I'd like to just type 1-123; 1-4563 and 0-650
If I had to do it in access, I would simply aply a mask to the field. Is there a way to make this in excel? Any ideas?
Adding an extra column and using a formula perhaps?

 

[Asala42]

Not exactly pretty, but how about typing your shorthand way in one column and copying this formula nearby (you may have to format your input column as text):

=REPT("0",5-FIND("-",A3))&LEFT(A3,FIND("-",A3)-1)&"-"&REPT("0",8-(LEN(A3)-FIND("-",A3)))&RIGHT(A3,LEN(A3)-FIND("-",A3))

 

[JohnG]

OK, Asla42 I am impressed!

 

[paliman]

Me too. And it works!!!
Thank you.

I have to go home now. Happy weekend to everyone!!!