Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Using an Input Mask.

Using an Input Mask

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 16, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021


1

When inputting time into a cell, it is easy to enter digits—that's what the numeric keypad is for, after all. What can really slow you down is the necessity to enter other characters, particularly ones that require the use of the Shift key. For instance, if you are entering times, it is easy to enter 230 for 2:30, but it is a pain to slow down by entering the colon.

Thus, you may wonder if there is a way to set up an input mask that will add the colon automatically. The good news is yes, there is. The bad news is no, there isn't. Sound confusing? Let me explain...

You can set up a custom format that will display your time in any format you want. For instance, you could use the following steps:

  1. Select the cells you want to use for time input.
  2. Display the Home tab of the ribbon.
  3. Click the small icon at the bottom-right of the Number group. Excel displays the Number tab of the Format Cells dialog box.
  4. In the Category list, choose Custom. (See Figure 1.)
  5. Figure 1. The Number tab of the Format Cells dialog box.

  6. Replace whatever is in the Type box with #":"00 (a hash mark, quote mark, colon, quote mark, and two zeros).
  7. Click on OK.

You can now enter your times using just digits. The problem (and this is the bad news) is that the cell doesn't really contain a time. If you enter 230 (for 2:30), it doesn't contain 2:30 as a time—it contains two hundred and thirty. Thus, you can't use the contents of the cell directly in time calculations.

To overcome this, you can use another column to show the entered digits converted into a time. All you need to do is use a formula to do the conversions. For instance, if the time you entered was in cell A3, you could use the following formula in a different cell to do the conversion:

=(INT(A3/100)/24)+(MOD(A3,100)/1440)

Format the cell that contains the above formula so it displays one of the various time formats, and you are all set.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (12550) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Using an Input Mask.

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

Collapsing and Expanding Subdocuments

Working with subdocuments is easier if you understand how to collapse and expand them. Here are the techniques you can use.

Discover More

Comment Dates Updated Inappropriately

Using the comment capabilities of Word is a common occurrence when developing a document. What do you do, however, if the ...

Discover More

Creating a Drawing Object

Creating simple drawing objects is easy in Excel. All you need to do is use the large number of drawing tools available ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Previous Column Values in a Drop-Down List

Want a quick way to add non-unique values into a column? You probably know you can do this by starting to simply type in ...

Discover More

Deleting Duplicate Columns

Have a worksheet in which there may be entire columns that are duplicates of each other? If you want to delete those ...

Discover More

Not Enough Resources to Delete Rows and Columns

Few things are as frustrating as trying to delete rows or columns and having Excel tell you that you can't perform the ...

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 five more than 3?

2023-09-17 10:42:16

J. Woolley

If you want to apply an input mask to a range of cells on a worksheet so that each numeric constant entered is interpreted as "military" time (hhmm) and replaced by its corresponding time serial value, add this VBA to the worksheet's Sheet module (like Sheet1):

Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
    Dim TimeCells As Range, cell As Range, valu As Variant
    Set TimeCells = Range("A:A") 'adjust as requuired
    For Each cell In Target
        If Not (Application.Intersect(cell, TimeCells) Is Nothing _
            Or cell.HasFormula) Then
            valu = cell.Value
            If VarType(valu) = vbDouble Then
                valu = valu Mod 2400
                If valu < 0 Then valu = valu + 2400
                valu = TimeSerial(Int(valu / 100), (valu Mod 100), _
                    (valu - Fix(valu)) * 60)
                Application.EnableEvents = False
                    cell.Value = valu 'low risk of error
                Application.EnableEvents = True
            End If
        End If
    Next cell
End Sub

The range of cells with the input mask is identified by TimeCells. If the cells are formatted as General, the time serial value will be displayed in "Long" format (like 02:30:00 am, see Settings > Time & Language > Region); otherwise, format the cells as Time.


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu 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.