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Is is possible to show only hours and minutes when editing a time cell?

Something which has bothered me for a long time: I have a sheet to hold my working times.

Everytime I want to change a time shown as 10:25 to lets say 10:27 and I go into edit mode (F2 or doubleclick) it gets shown as 10:25:00.

It would be much more comfortable if it would be also 10:25 in edit mode (without seconds), because I only need to delete the minutes with backspace. Util now I have to use the arrow keys or have to delete the seconds also.

May sound like a tiny or irrelevant problem, but if you do it everyday, it's annoying and time consuming.

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  • I'm also a developer, so even if it requires any kind of programming or complex configuration it would be fine. Jun 2, 2014 at 16:39
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    You should be able to just overwrite the cell with your value (e.g. 10:27) without entering the cell's edit mode. This is 5 key-presses, same as F2+del+del+new value+new value, and no messy going to mouse or double-clicking or function keys to worry about.
    – dav
    Jun 2, 2014 at 17:26
  • To clarify my question: generally I'm wondering why it is not possible to edit only hours and minutes. How often someone really needs seconds in a time cell? If someone needs to use also seconds he could enter hh:mm:ss, and if he edit he should see hh:mm:ss I wish there was an option to enable this behavior. Maybe I submit a feature request to MS .. ;-) Jun 5, 2014 at 11:05
  • @dav You convinced me (because I have to ;-). But it need 7 to 9 keystrokes: F2 + del + del + del (:ss) + del (m) + del(m) + new value + new value + enter ;-) Jun 5, 2014 at 11:15
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    @dav final thoughts: To type in a colon (again) after numbers make my fingers tired, so I dont like to input the new time again. To edit with filled hh:mm I only need 4 to 6 keystrokes: F2 + del (m) [+ del(m)] + new value [+ new value] + enter Jun 5, 2014 at 11:32

1 Answer 1

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As this answer indicates, you might be able to change how dates are displayed in the formula bar by changing your region/language settings for your computer, but I don't believe that you can change the time display.

Assuming that this spreadsheet is within your control and that adjusting minutes is among the more common tasks that you perform, you could solve this by calculating the time off of two other cells.

A B C
1 10 25 10:25

Columns A and B are simply the numbers you enter and edit. Column C would contain the following formula: =TIME(A1,B1,0)

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  • Thank you, this would be a good workaround. However I dont want to introduce additional columns. See updated question. Jun 5, 2014 at 11:02

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