Force Byte
Knowledge and
Techniques of Data Input in Excel (2)
Following the last issue, I will introduce the practical knowledge and techniques of inputting date, time and text in Excel.
Inputting Date or Time
Below are the general rules for inputting date and time:
1. To input today's date, press <Ctrl> and <;> keys simultaneously.
2. To input the current time, press <Ctrl>, <Shift> and <;> keys simultaneously.
3. Need to use "/" or "-" when inputting date.
4. You may input both date and time in the same cell but remember to leave at least one space between them.
5. The text input is case insensitive in Excel.
6. In principle, Excel will display time in a 24-hour format. If you want to show time in a 12-hour format, you have to add "AM" (or "A") or "PM" (or "P") after it, e.g. 5:00 AM stands for 5 o'clock in the morning. But do remember that you have to leave a space between the time and the letter "A" or "P".
The table below shows the most commonly used input formats for date and time:
Now, let's input today's date by following the procedures shown below:
1. Move the cursor to the position where you want to input the date.
2. Press <Ctrl> and <;> keys simultaneously.
3. Press the <Enter> key.
The result will be displayed as follows:
Inputting Text
Please note that you can only input a maximum of 255 characters in one cell. The general rules for inputting text are listed as follows:
1. The text input will be displayed in alignment to the left in the cell.
2. To process a number such as a postal code as text, you may add a " ' " in front of the number.
3. If the data input consists of non-numerals, Excel will treat the data as text.
In principle, if the text to be input is too long, it will overflow to the neighbouring right cell. However you can activate the "wrap text function" to break the long text to several rows. Here are the procedures:
1. Click the "Cells" option on the "Format" menu.
2. Click the "Alignment" tab.
3. Select the "wrap text" check box.
4. Press "OK".
Below are the effects before and after the "wrap text function" is activated:
Next time, I will talk about another practical Excel input technique.
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Input
Meaning
1997/2/20
20th February 1997
1997/2/5 18:40
1840 hours (6:40 pm) on 5th February 1997
6:30PM
6 o'clock and 30 minutes in the evening
7:20:56AM
7 o'clock 20 minutes and 56 seconds in the morning
"wrap text function" not activated
"wrap text function" activated