Enter date and time in Excel

You are facing the problem of quickly entering the current date and time in Excel without typing a lot? There are some simple tricks to make this easier. In this guide, you will learn how to quickly and easily input the date and time in Excel using keyboard shortcuts. Whether you want to use the predefined formatting or make your own adjustments - here you will learn everything you need to know.

Key Takeaways

• With the right keyboard shortcut, you can quickly insert date and time in Excel.
• The cell formatting is crucial for data presentation.
• You can customize both German and American date formats as well as the time according to your preferences.

Step-by-Step Guide

To easily use the date and time in Excel, follow the steps below:

First, open your Excel table and select the cell where the date should appear. Now hold down the Control (Ctrl) key and press the Period key. When you do this, the current date will automatically appear in the selected cell.

It's possible to insert a space afterwards to integrate the time. To do this, again hold down the same Control key and additionally the Shift key while pressing the Period key again. This will add the current time to the same cell.

If the cell is too narrow to display the date and time correctly, you can simply widen the cell with the mouse or double-click the right edge of the cell to automatically adjust the width.

Now you may want to customize the format of the date and time. You can press the Control key and Period key again, followed by Enter. Then go to the top menu bar and select the date format. Here, you can choose from various formats, such as the long date format or the American format where the year comes first, followed by the month and then the day.

If you return to the previous step, you can further adjust the date format. You have the option to choose a format like "2016/01/01" to get a specific layout. Make sure to confirm the changes with "Ok."

Next, you can also format the time according to your needs. Again, go to the top and choose from the time formats. If you want to insert a second hand, you can activate this option, for example.

If you prefer a different format for the time, such as "1:30 PM", choose the appropriate format and remove the second hand if necessary. Then click "Ok" again, and the cell will display the time in the desired format.

Finally, the date and time formats in your Excel cells are customizable, allowing you to tailor them to your specific requirements. Inserting date and time in Excel is not only efficient but can also save you a lot of time.

In this lesson, you have learned how to easily enter the date and time in Excel and adjust the formats as desired - an extremely useful trick to simplify and speed up work in Excel.

Summary

You have learned the basic steps for entering date and time in Excel and can now customize the cells according to your preferences to achieve a better overview and presentation of your data.