Ok, you have obviously taken me the wrong way.

At no time did i blame you for outlooks behaviour I wasnt happy with your
reply of "There is no need to". Making me believe that Outlooks behaviour is
the be-all and end-all of number format conventions and if i dont like it,
lump it. If i want numbers in my phone appearing a certain way i should be
able to make it work.

All i want is a solution (or even a workaround) to turn OFF the automatic
numbering format change. Basiclly operating like a free text field. Which is
what i understood from Mary's post is what she would also like.