stopwatch times

  • Thread starter Thread starter Craig
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C

Craig

Excel 2007 cell formating - I need to enter stopwatch testing times in
minutes and seconds format. I have tried mm:ss and [mm]:ss. With both Excel
wants to add "12 hours" in front of and "AM" behind all the values I enter.
With the 12 hours the values will not graph correctly. These values are not
the result of a calculation. I simply want to enter the values directly onto
the spreadsheet and create a graph. How do I overcome this problem? Thank
you.
 
How Excel handles dates and times is a bit tricky until you understand what
it's doing behind the scenes. In order to do math on times (because times
are in base 60 rather than base 100 like most other things), Excel does a
trick where it stores times as portions of a day. So, if you enter 12:00PM,
noon, it is actually storing .5, or half a day. If you format your dates as
numbers, you'll see this. 0 is exactly midnight, .5 is noon, .75 is 6:00 pm,
etc.

What you probably want to do is graph the number of minutes elapsed. You
can input your data as a time like 00:01:27 for 1 minute and 27 seconds.
Then, you can convert that time value into human-readable minutes by
multiplying by 1440 (the number of minutes in a day). Assuming you have your
times in column A, column B will just contain =A1*1440 .

The result, for example, with 00:02:00 will be 2. (1440 * 00:02:00 = 2
minutes)

I'm thinking you can graph the values in column B and get what you need.

Happy calculating!
 
That is way Excel stores date & time values...

Just format the cell as mm:ss and graph it... Excel will take care of the
rest...

You will just have to enter minutes and seconds values as 00:10:20
for 10 mins and 20 secs
 
Hi,

You've gotten a lot of good stuff already.

I think your problem lies in the way you are entering the times - just
because you have the format set to [mm]:ss doesn't mean you can enter 12
minutes and 15 seconds as 12:15. Excel will assume this is hour and then
minutes. You need to tell Excel the hours, so 00:12:15 is what you would
enter.
 
Thanks to each of who responded so promptly. These were each a great help.
It just means that I apparently have to enter a lot of zeros (the hour) and
colons that I was hoping to avoid. All I have is minutes and seconds. I
don't like that Excel displays the 12 and the AM for a user to see, which may
be confusing. Nonetheless, thanks again to all.



GSnyder said:
How Excel handles dates and times is a bit tricky until you understand what
it's doing behind the scenes. In order to do math on times (because times
are in base 60 rather than base 100 like most other things), Excel does a
trick where it stores times as portions of a day. So, if you enter 12:00PM,
noon, it is actually storing .5, or half a day. If you format your dates as
numbers, you'll see this. 0 is exactly midnight, .5 is noon, .75 is 6:00 pm,
etc.

What you probably want to do is graph the number of minutes elapsed. You
can input your data as a time like 00:01:27 for 1 minute and 27 seconds.
Then, you can convert that time value into human-readable minutes by
multiplying by 1440 (the number of minutes in a day). Assuming you have your
times in column A, column B will just contain =A1*1440 .

The result, for example, with 00:02:00 will be 2. (1440 * 00:02:00 = 2
minutes)

I'm thinking you can graph the values in column B and get what you need.

Happy calculating!

Craig said:
Excel 2007 cell formating - I need to enter stopwatch testing times in
minutes and seconds format. I have tried mm:ss and [mm]:ss. With both Excel
wants to add "12 hours" in front of and "AM" behind all the values I enter.
With the 12 hours the values will not graph correctly. These values are not
the result of a calculation. I simply want to enter the values directly onto
the spreadsheet and create a graph. How do I overcome this problem? Thank
you.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Thank you.


David Biddulph said:
You can simplify the data entry a bit.
It doesn't need 00:01:27; you can use 0:1:27 (or 1:27.0)
--
David Biddulph

Craig said:
Thanks to each of who responded so promptly. These were each a great
help.
It just means that I apparently have to enter a lot of zeros (the hour)
and
colons that I was hoping to avoid. All I have is minutes and seconds. I
don't like that Excel displays the 12 and the AM for a user to see, which
may
be confusing. Nonetheless, thanks again to all.



GSnyder said:
How Excel handles dates and times is a bit tricky until you understand
what
it's doing behind the scenes. In order to do math on times (because
times
are in base 60 rather than base 100 like most other things), Excel does a
trick where it stores times as portions of a day. So, if you enter
12:00PM,
noon, it is actually storing .5, or half a day. If you format your dates
as
numbers, you'll see this. 0 is exactly midnight, .5 is noon, .75 is 6:00
pm,
etc.

What you probably want to do is graph the number of minutes elapsed. You
can input your data as a time like 00:01:27 for 1 minute and 27 seconds.
Then, you can convert that time value into human-readable minutes by
multiplying by 1440 (the number of minutes in a day). Assuming you have
your
times in column A, column B will just contain =A1*1440 .

The result, for example, with 00:02:00 will be 2. (1440 * 00:02:00 = 2
minutes)

I'm thinking you can graph the values in column B and get what you need.

Happy calculating!

:

Excel 2007 cell formating - I need to enter stopwatch testing times in
minutes and seconds format. I have tried mm:ss and [mm]:ss. With both
Excel
wants to add "12 hours" in front of and "AM" behind all the values I
enter.
With the 12 hours the values will not graph correctly. These values
are not
the result of a calculation. I simply want to enter the values
directly onto
the spreadsheet and create a graph. How do I overcome this problem?
Thank
you.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Try this stopwatch http://www.XNoteStopwatch.com
Splits time into Excel and change cell's format accordintly.



Crai wrote:

stopwatch times
01-???-09

Excel 2007 cell formating - I need to enter stopwatch testing times in
minutes and seconds format. I have tried mm:ss and [mm]:ss. With both Excel
wants to add "12 hours" in front of and "AM" behind all the values I enter.
With the 12 hours the values will not graph correctly. These values are not
the result of a calculation. I simply want to enter the values directly onto
the spreadsheet and create a graph. How do I overcome this problem? Thank
you.

Previous Posts In This Thread:

On 1 ????? 2009 ?. 19:09
Crai wrote:

stopwatch times
Excel 2007 cell formating - I need to enter stopwatch testing times in
minutes and seconds format. I have tried mm:ss and [mm]:ss. With both Excel
wants to add "12 hours" in front of and "AM" behind all the values I enter.
With the 12 hours the values will not graph correctly. These values are not
the result of a calculation. I simply want to enter the values directly onto
the spreadsheet and create a graph. How do I overcome this problem? Thank
you.

On 1 ????? 2009 ?. 19:24
GSnyde wrote:

How Excel handles dates and times is a bit tricky until you understand what
How Excel handles dates and times is a bit tricky until you understand what
it's doing behind the scenes. In order to do math on times (because times
are in base 60 rather than base 100 like most other things), Excel does a
trick where it stores times as portions of a day. So, if you enter 12:00PM,
noon, it is actually storing .5, or half a day. If you format your dates as
numbers, you'll see this. 0 is exactly midnight, .5 is noon, .75 is 6:00 pm,
etc

What you probably want to do is graph the number of minutes elapsed. You
can input your data as a time like 00:01:27 for 1 minute and 27 seconds.
Then, you can convert that time value into human-readable minutes by
multiplying by 1440 (the number of minutes in a day). Assuming you have your
times in column A, column B will just contain =A1*1440

The result, for example, with 00:02:00 will be 2. (1440 * 00:02:00 = 2
minutes

I'm thinking you can graph the values in column B and get what you need

Happy calculating

:

On 1 ????? 2009 ?. 19:31
Click on my name above to get instructions for getting my email id wrote:

That is way Excel stores date & time values...
That is way Excel stores date & time values..

Just format the cell as mm:ss and graph it... Excel will take care of the
rest..

You will just have to enter minutes and seconds values as 00:10:2
for 10 mins and 20 sec


:

On 1 ????? 2009 ?. 19:49
shanedevenshir wrote:

Hi,You've gotten a lot of good stuff already.
Hi

You've gotten a lot of good stuff already.

I think your problem lies in the way you are entering the times - just
because you have the format set to [mm]:ss doesn't mean you can enter 12
minutes and 15 seconds as 12:15. Excel will assume this is hour and then
minutes. You need to tell Excel the hours, so 00:12:15 is what you would
enter

--
If this helps, please click the Yes button

Cheers
Shane Devenshir

:

On 1 ????? 2009 ?. 23:15
Crai wrote:

Thanks to each of who responded so promptly. These were each a great help.
Thanks to each of who responded so promptly. These were each a great help.
It just means that I apparently have to enter a lot of zeros (the hour) and
colons that I was hoping to avoid. All I have is minutes and seconds. I
don't like that Excel displays the 12 and the AM for a user to see, which may
be confusing. Nonetheless, thanks again to all


:

On 2 ????? 2009 ?. 3:39
David Biddulph wrote:

You can simplify the data entry a bit.
You can simplify the data entry a bit
It does not need 00:01:27; you can use 0:1:27 (or 1:27.0
-
David Biddulph

On 2 ????? 2009 ?. 8:12
Crai wrote:

Re: stopwatch times
Thank you

:

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jane brown said:
Excel 2003 cell formating - I need to enter stopwatch testing
times in minutes and seconds format. I have tried mm:ss and
[mm]:ss. With both Excel wants to add "12 hours" in front of
and "AM" behind all the values I enter. With the 12 hours the
values will not graph correctly. These values are not the
result of a calculation. I simply want to enter the values
directly onto the spreadsheet and create a graph. How do I
overcome this problem?
Click to expand...

First, ignore how times appear in the Formula Bar. The Formula Bar has its
own formatting rules that we cannot control. What matters is only that the
time is represented internally as you wish. 12:01:34 AM is the same 1
minute 34 second since 12:00 AM is effective 0 hours.

However, when entering data, Excel always interprets 12:34 as 12 hours 34
minutes, and it always interprets 12:34.0 as 12 minutes 34 seconds (and 0
tenths of a second), regardless of the cell format.

So you can reliably enter minutes and seconds data either by explicitly
entering 0 hours -- for example, 0:12:34 -- or by entering 0 or more
fractional seconds -- for example, 12:34.0.

AFAIK, there are no other work-arounds, other than using a formula or VBA
procedure to convert your data after entry. If you need help with that, I
would need more information. For example, how are you "entering the values
directly": typing manually or copy-and-paste? If the latter, what is the
source of copy; for example, web page or text file? And exactly what form
does the original data have: always minutes:seconds, or sometimes
hours:minutes:seconds?
 
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