Time Formatting Does Not Work for me

[John E. Golden]

Hello,

I have been trying to format some cells so that I can insert a simple
elapsed time in minutes and seconds (like 24:35), but when I try to format
the cells, the formatting seems to have a mind of its own.

Help would be appreciated.

Regards,
John E. Golden

 

[Sandy Mann]

I'm not one of the mind readers that seem to frequent these NG's sometime so
can you tell me what actually happens when you try to format the cells as
time?

--
Regards,

Sandy
In Perth, the ancient capital of Scotland
and the crowning place of kings

(e-mail address removed)
Replace @mailinator.com with @tiscali.co.uk

 

[Dave Peterson]

Did you try:

[hh]:mm

And did you enter the value as a real time: 24:35

When I entered 24:35 in a cell formatted as General, excel helped me by making
the format [h]:mm:ss

But that was kind of close to what you wanted.

 

[John E. Golden]

Thanks, I just tried that and it worked as you said.

Funny, I couldn't make it work correctly or near correctly in a cell
formatted as Time.

Regards,
John E. Golden

Did you try:

[hh]:mm

And did you enter the value as a real time: 24:35

When I entered 24:35 in a cell formatted as General, excel helped me by
making
the format [h]:mm:ss

But that was kind of close to what you wanted.

Hello,

I have been trying to format some cells so that I can insert a simple
elapsed time in minutes and seconds (like 24:35), but when I try to
format
the cells, the formatting seems to have a mind of its own.

Help would be appreciated.

Regards,
John E. Golden

 

[John E. Golden]

I'm not one of the mind readers that seem to frequent these NG's sometime
so can you tell me what actually happens when you try to format the cells
as time?

--
Regards,

Sandy
In Perth, the ancient capital of Scotland
and the crowning place of kings

(e-mail address removed)
Replace @mailinator.com with @tiscali.co.uk

I tried every one of the 'Time' Formats that didn't have an AM or PM
associated with it. Some of them deleted the 24 minutes, others added a
date.....al kinds of weird stuff.

Regards,
John E. Golden

P. S. Sorry you're not a mind reader.

 

[Dave Peterson]

If the cell had an existing format of: hh:mm:ss
then the hours over 24 wouldn't show up in the cell.

You need the []'s.

Thanks, I just tried that and it worked as you said.

Funny, I couldn't make it work correctly or near correctly in a cell
formatted as Time.

Regards,
John E. Golden

Did you try:

[hh]:mm

And did you enter the value as a real time: 24:35

When I entered 24:35 in a cell formatted as General, excel helped me by
making
the format [h]:mm:ss

But that was kind of close to what you wanted.

Hello,

I have been trying to format some cells so that I can insert a simple
elapsed time in minutes and seconds (like 24:35), but when I try to
format
the cells, the formatting seems to have a mind of its own.

Help would be appreciated.

Regards,
John E. Golden

 

[David Biddulph]

The problem is that Excel assumes that 23:50 is 23 hours and 50 minutes, not
23 minutes and 50 seconds. You normally have to put the number in as
23:50.0 or as 0:23:50 to convince it that you mean minutes and seconds. The
cell format you choose for *displaying* the number doesn't help in the
interpretation when you are typing the number in.

 

[John E. Golden]

Thanks,

I was going bananas.

Regards,
John E. Golden