Working with Minutes

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 27, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Some people use Excel to help keep track of elapsed time. This may sound like a rather esoteric use of Excel, but it is not, really. For instance, you may develop a timesheet. You enter a starting time in a cell, an ending time in another cell, and then calculate the elapsed time between the two by simply subtracting the starting time from the ending time.

If you use Excel in this way, you may have a need to display your results in just minutes, with no hours showing. You can do this in one of two ways. The first is to simply format the cell containing the aggregate of your elapsed times. Follow these steps:

  1. Select the cell in which you want your result displayed as minutes.
  2. Choose Cells from the Format menu. Excel displays the Format Cells dialog box.
  3. Make sure the Number tab is displayed.
  4. In the Category list (left side) choose Custom. (See Figure 1.)

    5. Figure 1. The Number tab of the Format Cells dialog box.

  5. In the Type box, enter the format as [mm], which consists of a left and right square bracket with two lowercase ms in the middle.
  6. Click on OK.

Your cell now contains only elapsed minutes. This is great for displaying results, but you may actually want a cell to literally contain a number representing the number of elapsed minutes. This need brings us to the second solution: simply multiply the aggregation cell by 1440 and format the result as a regular number (not as a date or time). This effectively takes a value out of the special date/time format maintained by Excel and puts it back into the realm of regular numbers.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2820) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Using the Function Key Display Toolbar

Need to know what various function keys do? One easy way to find out is to use the Function Key Display toolbar, ...

Discover More

Displaying Row and Column Labels

When you create a worksheet, it is common to place headings at the top of each column and the left of each row so you can ...

Discover More

Automatically Saving Changes to Defaults

Have you ever started a new document only to find that the settings in Word seem to be different than what you expected? ...

Discover More

Best-Selling VBA Tutorial for Beginners Take your Excel knowledge to the next level. With a little background in VBA programming, you can go well beyond basic spreadsheets and functions. Use macros to reduce errors, save time, and integrate with other Microsoft applications. Fully updated for the latest version of Office 365. Check out Microsoft 365 Excel VBA Programming For Dummies today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Elapsed Days as Years, Months and Days

Need to know how many days there are between two dates? It's easy to figure out—unless you need the figure in ...

Discover More

Specifying Different Weekends with NETWORKDAYS

The NETWORKDAYS worksheet function can be used to easily determine the number of work days (Monday through Friday) within ...

Discover More

Working with Elapsed Time

Work with times in a worksheet and you will eventually want to start working with elapsed times. Here's an explanation of ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 2 + 2?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.