Al --
The real pitfall in your suggestion is not the original entry of the value, but the re-entry.
Excel is smart enough to remember that you entered a leading quote mark when you go back to a field.
Property Window and PEMEditor can store nothing but the value, which means that they cannot remember whether a leading quote mark was entered.
Thus, on re-entry of a value, you'd either always lose the original quote (oops!) or always have a leading quote (oops!).
Jim Nelson
Newbury Park, CA