Help me with entering times in Excel

[halesowenmum]

Hi all.

I've got some cells where I want to enter times of the day (and be able to do calculations on them so they probably can't be text).

I've got the cells formatted as Time and then using Custom and have formatted to hh:mm.

So I do that and it shows like that.

However. When I type into that cell for example "10:00" I don't get 10:00 showing, I get 00:00:00 and in the formula bar it changes to/shows "[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]10/01/1900 00:00:00".

I just want users to simply, easily and accurately be able to type in the times they arrive and leave places in a numerical time format.

Do I need VBA or a formula to sort this out and how do I handle am and pm?

Thank you.
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[Special-K99]

Works for me based on your description.
You need to type 10:00 including the colon and the minutes, not just 10.
Looks like you just typed 10
If it still doesnt work create a new workbook, do what you did before and see if that cures the problem.
If so it would point to a problem with your workbook/worksheet.

10:00 is 10AM
22:00 is 10PM

Entering AM into the cell would turn it into text

 

[MARK858]

Entering AM into the cell would turn it into text

If I enter 10 AM in a cell (with the space) it doesn't turn it into text, it remains in time format and =ISNUMBER(The cell reference) returns TRUE.

 

[halesowenmum]

Thank you Special-K99, I can work with 10:00 and 22:00 that's fine. I'll just provide instructions of how they should enter times into cells.

However....

I've worked lots with end users and I ​

know

some won't know how to do a colon, some WILL inevitably type "10" for 10.00 am and then it'll all go to pot and I can just imagine the poor quality data I'll be capturing and just trying to think of ways to limit erroneous entries - is there any more I can do to accommodate this requirement?​

 

[MARK858]

@halesowenmum, you can always use Data validation to force the users to enter it in a recognised time format.

 

[Joe4]

Here is a good article that shows you to apply the Time Data Validation Mark is talking about:
https://wmfexcel.com/2014/08/10/data-validation-time/

 

[Special-K99]

If I enter 10 AM in a cell (with the space) it doesn't turn it into text, it remains in time format and =ISNUMBER(The cell reference) returns TRUE.

Entering 10AM produces text (note no space)

 

[MARK858]

Entering 10AM produces text (note no space)

Yes but the act of adding AM to the cell doesn't turn it to text, it is the lack of the space with the AM so this statement

Entering AM into the cell would turn it into text

is incorrect.

Data validation though from the OP's post would do away with these types of issues.

 

[halesowenmum]

Thanks all for the above.

I've added data validation in the relevant cells in the form of an instructional Input Message and setting it to flag up as an error if they try and enter the wrong thing - thank you for all your help with this.