Thanks! I thought there might be a way to enter time simply as hours and
minutes without the hiergolyphics in the background (formula bar). Anyway,
the calculations work; that's what matters I guess, not the aesthetics. File
this under anal retentive or obsessive compulsive. Thanks again!

"T. Valko" wrote:

in the equal bar (don't know what it's called)

It's called the formula bar.

The reason it displays like that in the formula bar is because:

26:30 = 1 day + 2 hrs and 30 mins

Excel is "eager" to display dates. So, it interprets 1 day + 2 hrs and 30
mins as 1/1/1900 2:30:00 AM.

There is nothing you can do about that. You could hide the formula bar
altogether but it's probably not what you really want to do:

Goto ViewFormula bar

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"Rufus" wrote in message
...
When I format a cell as [h]:mm to represent hours and minutes worked, say,
26:30 for 26 and 1/2 hours, it shows in cell as 26:30, but shows in the
equal
bar (don't know what it's called) above the spreadsheet as "1/1/1900
2:30:00AM" Why and is there a way to have that equal bar show the same as
what's in the cell, i.e. 26:30? The pay calculations work fine; it's just
disconcerting to click on a cell for time worked ( i.e. 26:30) and see
what
appears to be gibberish (i.e. 1/1/1900 2:30:00AM) in the equal bar above
the
spreadsheet.