How can I use minutes and seconds

G

guilbj2

I'm trying to create a spreadsheet (Excel97) to calculate average handl
time for a call center. Each entry will be in minutes and seconds. N
matter what cell format I seem to choose, it just converts the entr
into a time of day, which is not what I need.

I want to enter the data as follows.

8:14 - (this would be 8 mintues, 14 seconds)

I'd like to be able to sum and average the numbers as well (all i
minutes and seconds), but getting the format correct is causin
difficulty. Any help would be most appreciated, thanks
 
P

Peo Sjoblom

It works fine but you need to enter it as 0:8:14,
then when you sum the cells use custom format [mm]:ss
Time will always be part of a day unless you use decimal values
and enter it as 8.14 then when working with it convert it to time


one day is 1 in excel, one hour is 1/24, one minute is 1/24/60 or
1/1440

--

Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

(No private emails please, for everyone's
benefit keep the discussion in the newsgroup/forum)
 
A

Andy B

Hi

This shouldn't be a problem. Format the cells as mm:ss to input time. If
your data might go over 60 minutes, but you still want it displayed as
minutes, rather than hours, use [mm]:ss
Excel stores time as part of a day (ie there is a normal number 'behind'
your time), so you can do maths on it just like any other numbers.
 
N

Norman Harker

Hi guilbj2!

The trouble is that your time entry of 8:14 is interpreted by Excel as
8 hours 14 minutes

To enter 8 minutes 14 seconds you need to use 0:8:14

You can either enter the times 0:8:14 or use 8:14 and create a helper
column which divides your entry by 60 and formats mm:ss (or if the
time can exceed 60 minutes, format [mm]:ss or hh:mm:ss
 
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