jenniss,

In Excel, you cannot directly enter a negative time. You can have a
negative time as a result of a formula if you set the date system to the
1904 system - Tools | Options.... Calculation tab, check "1904 date system"
Note that using this setting will affect all the time/date calculations in
the workbook - for good or for bad.

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP

"jenniss" wrote in message
...
i am trying to type a minus figure in excel and it comes up with an error:

the formula you typed contains an error

i confirm in the cell i am typing -1:02 and the cell format is
+[hh]:mm;[red]-[hh]:mm (i want the hours to exceed 24 hour and i want a
minus figure in red)

can anyone help me to type a minus figure?