If you want negative time you have to change the date system to 1904 under
toolsoptionscalculation

Note that it will add 1462 days to any date, so if you use that you can
convert back any altered dates by putting 1462 in an empty cell, copy it,
paste special and select subtract

otherwise you have to fake it

=IF(B1=A1,TEXT(B1-A1,"[h]:mm:ss"),TEXT(A1-B1,"-[h]:mm:ss"))

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Regards,

Peo Sjoblom


"SheriffCassidy" wrote in message
...
I'm new to functions and formulas - how do I create one to automatically
update a cell so that it shows the difference between two cells that
display
times.

For example, cell A1 contains 2:30pm and A2 contains 2:45pm - I want A3 to
display the difference, regardless of whether it is a negative or
postivie.
In fact, I would prefer that it made no reference to whether it's a
negative
or not.