When I enter "Jan 03" meaning the month of January 2003, the program
automatically enters 3-Jan and assumes I mean January 3, 2006. I have
changed the number format of the entire column to General and have even tried
changing it to the date format "Mar 01" to no avail. How do I prohibit Excel
from ASSUMING what I want to enter and just let me enter what I want?

Also, is there any way for excel to calculate times, like 22 minutes 15
seconds plus 8 minutes 12 seconds?

For your date problem, enter an apostrophe (') before the data.
The apostrophe will not show in the cell, but will in the formula
bar.

For your time question, times are stored internally as a fraction
of a 24-hour day (e.g., 0.25 = 6:00, 0.5 = 12:00, 0.75 = 18:00,
etc), so you can add them as normal numbers. Format the result
cell as [h]:mm:ss.




--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com


"stevekfbc" wrote in
message
...
When I enter "Jan 03" meaning the month of January 2003, the
program
automatically enters 3-Jan and assumes I mean January 3, 2006.
I have
changed the number format of the entire column to General and
have even tried
changing it to the date format "Mar 01" to no avail. How do I
prohibit Excel
from ASSUMING what I want to enter and just let me enter what I
want?

Also, is there any way for excel to calculate times, like 22
minutes 15
seconds plus 8 minutes 12 seconds?

Thanks for the apostrophe solution. As for the time question, does that mean
I have to know what fraction of a day 22 minutes and 15 seconds is? Or do I
enter the time as "22.15" and then ask Excel to convert that to mm:ss?

"Chip Pearson" wrote:

For your date problem, enter an apostrophe (') before the data.
The apostrophe will not show in the cell, but will in the formula
bar.

For your time question, times are stored internally as a fraction
of a 24-hour day (e.g., 0.25 = 6:00, 0.5 = 12:00, 0.75 = 18:00,
etc), so you can add them as normal numbers. Format the result
cell as [h]:mm:ss.




--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com


"stevekfbc" wrote in
message
...
When I enter "Jan 03" meaning the month of January 2003, the
program
automatically enters 3-Jan and assumes I mean January 3, 2006.
I have
changed the number format of the entire column to General and
have even tried
changing it to the date format "Mar 01" to no avail. How do I
prohibit Excel
from ASSUMING what I want to enter and just let me enter what I
want?

Also, is there any way for excel to calculate times, like 22
minutes 15
seconds plus 8 minutes 12 seconds?

If you have times in some cells, just use the SUM function or the
+ operator to add them up. E.g.,

=SUM(A1:A5)
or
=A1+A2


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com



"stevekfbc" wrote in
message
...
Thanks for the apostrophe solution. As for the time question,
does that mean
I have to know what fraction of a day 22 minutes and 15 seconds
is? Or do I
enter the time as "22.15" and then ask Excel to convert that to
mm:ss?

"Chip Pearson" wrote:

For your date problem, enter an apostrophe (') before the
data.
The apostrophe will not show in the cell, but will in the
formula
bar.

For your time question, times are stored internally as a
fraction
of a 24-hour day (e.g., 0.25 = 6:00, 0.5 = 12:00, 0.75 =
18:00,
etc), so you can add them as normal numbers. Format the result
cell as [h]:mm:ss.




--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com


"stevekfbc" wrote in
message
...
When I enter "Jan 03" meaning the month of January 2003, the
program
automatically enters 3-Jan and assumes I mean January 3,
2006.
I have
changed the number format of the entire column to General
and
have even tried
changing it to the date format "Mar 01" to no avail. How do
I
prohibit Excel
from ASSUMING what I want to enter and just let me enter
what I
want?

Also, is there any way for excel to calculate times, like 22
minutes 15
seconds plus 8 minutes 12 seconds?