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

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


Replace @mailinator.com with @tiscali.co.uk


"John E. Golden" wrote in message
...
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

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" wrote:

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

--

Dave Peterson

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

"Dave Peterson" wrote in message
...
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" wrote:

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

--

Dave Peterson

"Sandy Mann" wrote in message
...
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


Replace @mailinator.com with @tiscali.co.uk


"John E. Golden" wrote in message
...
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

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.

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.


"John E. Golden" wrote:

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

"Dave Peterson" wrote in message
...
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" wrote:

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

--

Dave Peterson

--

Dave Peterson

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.
--
David Biddulph

"John E. Golden" wrote in message
...
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

Thanks,

I was going bananas.

Regards,
John E. Golden

"David Biddulph" <groups [at] biddulph.org.uk wrote in message
...
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.
--
David Biddulph

"John E. Golden" wrote in message
...
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