 <p>You can try to set the cell-format to text via</p> <pre><code>CellStyle cellStyle = wb.createCellStyle(); cellStyle.setDataFormat( createHelper.createDataFormat().getFormat("@")); cell.setCellStyle(cellStyle); </code></pre> <p>Note: CellStyles shoudl be re-used for all applicable cells, do not create new ones for every cell.</p> <p>You could also try to use the "Ignore errors" feature in the .xlsx format, however support for it is not fully done yet, see <a href="https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=46136" rel="nofollow">Issue 46136</a> and <a href="https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=58641" rel="nofollow">Issue 58641</a> for some ongoing discussion.</p> <p>See also <a href="https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd944168%28v=office.12%29.aspx" rel="nofollow">this MSDN page</a> for some additional information</p>