Question: Why do the phone numbers in my list look strange? They look something like this:

9.024E+09
9.034E+09
9.021E+09

Answer:
When you open your lists data in Microsoft Excel or other similar programs, the spreadsheet software quickly interprets your data and displays each part of it as either text or numerals. When phone numbers are displayed as pure numerals, Excel considers them numbers that you may wish to perform mathematical calculations with -- even though you don't.

In addition, when you first open your data, by default all the MS Excel columns are the same width. The phone numbers are wider than the columns are, so the spreadsheet can't display them properly. It therefore shows you the numbers using scientific notation, in order to shorten the display -- much the same way a pocket calculator displays numbers that are just too long.

Solution:

In order to properly see the data, you need to widen the columns so that the full phone or fax numbers can be displayed. In MS Excel:

1. Select the colunms to widen, by clicking the letters at the top of each column.
   Hold down Ctrl or Shift to select multiple columns, or use Ctrl+A to Select All.
2. Click Format/Column/Auto Fit Selection

Now the columns show you the complete data.