As with dates, the key to entering a time in Excel is to enter it in a format that Excel will recognize as a time. When checking for a time, Excel will look for hours, minutes, seconds, and the AM or PM designation. Let’s take a look. You can, of course, enter a time with all components. For example, 7:00 PM can be entered like this: 7:00:00 PM And 8:30 AM like this: 8:30:00 AM However, Excel can understand the date in progressively shorter formats. For example, we can enter the time without seconds: 7:00 PM We can enter the time without minutes: 7 AM We can even enter the time with AM/PM abbreviated: 7 p We can also enter the time in military format, so that we don’t need to add AM or PM: 19:00 In each case, when we check the times in the formula bar, we can see that Excel is tracking a fully formed time. We can then cleanly format these times in any way we like. Finally, you should know that you can also enter a date and time together, and Excel will store the time along with the date.
Dave Bruns
Hi - I’m Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.
