Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Formatting for Hundredths of Seconds.

Formatting for Hundredths of Seconds

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 17, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


1

Paolo wants to record times in an Excel workbook, but he needs the times to be precise, including hundredths of a second. What he would like is a format such as 1.41.73, meaning 1 minute, 41 seconds, and 73 hundredths.

This type of formatting can be easily applied to a cell in the following manner:

  1. Select the cell or cells you want to format.
  2. Choose Cells from the Format menu. Excel displays the Format Cells dialog box.
  3. Make sure the Number tab is selected.
  4. In the Category list, choose Custom. (See Figure 1.)
  5. Figure 1. The Number tab of the Format Cells dialog box.

  6. In the Type box, enter the following: [h]:mm:ss.00
  7. Click OK.

The format shows elapsed time, with hours, minutes, seconds, and hundredths of seconds. If you prefer, you can change what delimiters are used between each element of the time. For instance, if you want to use decimal points and drop off the hours, you can use the following format in step 4: mm.ss.00.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3085) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Formatting for Hundredths of Seconds.

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

Handling Long Lines in Address Labels

When you print address labels, you only have a limited amount of horizontal space for each line of the label. If your ...

Discover More

Error Message about WRS File

Error messages in Word can be frustrating. For instance, if you see a message that says something about WRS files, it can ...

Discover More

Creating See-Through Text Boxes

When laying out your document, you may want to use a text box that appears to be positioned over your text, but to be ...

Discover More

Program Successfully in Excel! This guide will provide you with all the information you need to automate any task in Excel and save time and effort. Learn how to extend Excel's functionality with VBA to create solutions not possible with the standard features. Includes latest information for Excel 2024 and Microsoft 365. Check out Mastering Excel VBA Programming today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Exporting Latitude and Longitude

A handy way to store latitude and longitude values in Excel is to treat them as regular time values. When it comes around ...

Discover More

Making Squares

Cells in a worksheet defined by the intersection of rows and columns. If you adjust row height and column width just ...

Discover More

Setting Orientation of Cell Values

Need the contents of a cell to be shown in a direction different than normal? Excel makes it easy to have your content ...

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.

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 1 + 3?

2023-12-21 16:20:33

Ron S

You can display thousandths of a second using one more zero in the format.
h:mm:ss.000

That is max display precision.

2 really extensive Excel formatting articles. The second one has a few fine points not included in the first

Excel Custom Number Format Guide
https://www.myonlinetraininghub.com/excel-custom-number-format-guide

A comprehensive guide to Number Formats in Excel (extracts)
https://web.archive.org/web/20170331105133/http://exceldesignsolutions.com/a-comprehensive-guide-number-formats-excel


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.