Practical Excel tips for entering dates using a calendar

Key Insights

With the calendar function in Excel, you can significantly simplify the entry of date information by simply clicking on the date in the calendar. You can customize the calendar system and use additional useful tips for entering dates.

Step-by-Step Guide

To activate the calendar in Excel, start by opening your Excel application.

On the "Add-Ins" tab in Excel, you will find the option to add the calendar. This is the first step to activate the practical calendar. Click on "Add-Ins" to see the options.

After clicking on "Add-Ins," look for the function for the "Mini Calendar." Click on it to add it. Note that the calendar may take a few seconds to load completely.

Once the calendar is loaded, you can adjust its size. If it looks too big to you, you can shrink it or change the height. This way, you can create more space on your worksheet.

With the calendar, you can now easily insert date entries. Click on a date to insert it into your cell. For example, if you are entering the purchase date for a car, you could simply click on the 8th of February to confirm this.

The calendar also offers various style options. You can customize the colors and designs to suit your preferences. This is useful if you want to adjust the design of your table.

Another advantage of the calendar is that you can customize the calendar system to your liking. You can choose between the American system and the ISO system or decide whether to display week numbers.

Furthermore, you can adjust the settings for showing and hiding the calendar. You can even add the current time, noting that it will be displayed in the American format.

Note that Excel can also provide warnings if you enter a date that may override a previous date. However, no warning appears when entering a new date.

To quickly enter the current date, you can also use a keyboard shortcut: Hold down the "Ctrl" key and press the period key. The current date will then be automatically inserted into the cell.

If you always want to display the current date, you can use the formula =TODAY(). This ensures that the current date is always displayed in your table, no matter when you open it.

If you want to capture the exact date and time, you can use the formula =NOW(). This will insert both the current date and time into the cell.

Finally, you can also calculate a date difference. For example, if you enter May 1st in a cell, you can calculate the days between these two dates with the formula for my example =O2-P2.

Summary

In this tutorial, you have learned how to use a calendar in Excel to facilitate entering date information. You have learned how to add the calendar, customize it, and use various useful functions to efficiently handle date entries.