Lance,
I checked the Calculation tab as you suggested and it was set to Automatic,
but I should have thought to check that, I'll remember that one for ther
future.

Still having problems with compiling date & time out of the csv output from
a measuring device, e.g.
A1 = 2005
B1 = 12
C1 = 24
D1 = 13
I want to get the above into a single cell: 24/12/2005 13:00
The next entry is for 24/12/2005 14:00, 24/12/2005 15:00 and so on, which I
then need to graph on a X-Y timeline.

So I cannot add the individual cell values,, as others suggested, as I want
Excel to distinguish between the year, month, day and hour (otherwise I just
get the answer 2054).

Hence I tried the Concatenated Date idea, along the lines of
E1=C1&"/"&B1&"/"&A1&" "&D1&":00:00"

I get an answer that looks good on the screen but until I hit return to each
cell in Column E, Excel doesn't accept the date - even though I have the Cell
Format set to Custom dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm.

Once I hit the Return Key then Excel recognises the contents (and actually
converts it to 38710.5416666667 which when in the date format gives exactly
what I want.

Any ideas on how to get the input data converted to recognised date & time?

Anisette
"Lance Gray" wrote:

Anisette, this may sound simple, but it sounds like you may have your
calculate option set to "Manual". To check this, go into Tools / Options,
and go to the Calculation tab, and make sure that it is set to Automatic and
not Manual.
Hope this solves your problem,
Lance

"Anisette" wrote:

I have used the "concatenate" function to put together data from 4 separate
columns to form a date & time entry in the next column (the original 4
columns came from a .cvs file) on the basis of dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm format.
I have defined the destimation column for 'Custom' Cell Format using the
dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm choice. But Excel does not recognise the information as
date & time, BUT, if I press the Return Key on each individual cell, then
Excel does recognise the contents as a date & time. Then I can go on to
chart my results on a timeline (the whole purpose of the exercise).
The difficulty is that I have 5000 entries with more to add. I don't want
to have to hit the Return key for every indivual cell as this defeats the
purpose of mass copy & paste.
How can I get Excel to accept the concatenated data as a date & time?