Entering the Current Time

Summary: Want to enter the current time into a cell? It's easy with the shortcut described in this tip. (This tip works with Microsoft Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, Excel 2003, and Excel 2007.)

Some people like to use Excel to keep track of the time that they work on different jobs. If you want a quick way to enter the current time, simply select a cell and press Ctrl+: (that's the colon). Obviously, to access the colon you need to hold down the Shift key, so some people might express this shortcut as Shift+Ctrl+:. The result is that Excel places the current system time in the selected cell. All you need to do is press Enter to accept the time.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2616) applies to Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

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