=(TEXT(A2,"00\:00")-TEXT(A1,"00\:00"))*1440 <<

guys you are all lifesaver's... all i can say is that "i" can care less how
many frickin' MICROseconds it takes... the formula prevents me from manually
having to convert any time that crosses the hour mark into a time type
number rather than the numerical number (ie, subtract 40 for 1 hour,subtract
80 for 2 hours, etc...) i tried the [h]:mm formatting thing, but i STILL
had to enter the dang ":" sign... this saves both kelsey1022 and myself the
hassle...


now, if you could do me a favor? explain *why* it works? i'm pretty sure
that the (text(a2,"00\:00") converts the value in cell a2 into a text format
of ##:## {or is it converting a text into a number}, either way, why do you
have the backslash in there?, also what does multiplying the difference by
1440 do? i mean, it works, but how come "1440"?