Inserting the Current Time with Seconds

Summary: If you need to insert the current time, with seconds, then you'll need the macro discussed in this tip. It's easy to use and can give you just the information you need. (This tip works with Microsoft Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, Excel 2003, and Excel 2007.)

As you have learned in other ExcelTips, you can use Ctrl+: (that's a colon) to enter the current time into a cell. The resulting cell value is equal to the hours and minutes of the current time. In other words, the seconds will always be zero.

If you want to insert the current time and have it include the seconds, the best way is to use a macro. You can then assign the macro to a keyboard shortcut or a toolbar button (or both) so it can be immediately popped into place. The following macro will do the trick nicely:

Sub TimeStamp()
    ActiveCell.Value = Time
    ActiveCell.NumberFormat = "h:mm:ss AM/PM"
End Sub

Notice that the time is placed in the cell, and then the cell is formatted to show hours, minutes, and seconds.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2012) applies to Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

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Inserting the Current Time with Seconds