Hi all

If i have set "161312" in a cell and want to change it to a time 04:13:12 you would think you can just select the cell and format it to "time" - however it sets the time to 00:00:00
instead of changing the text into a time.
any suggestions?

thanks

If, like me, you are using Excel 2000, the reason that it isn't working the way that you expect is because it is assuming that the number that you have typed in is a "serial" number, which it tries to convert to a date and time and then hide the date part so that only the time part is displayed.

I believe that this is based on the "Julian" date/time standard, which has been used in Microsoft programs for at least the last 12 years. Typing in a number that represents the hours, minutes and seconds in the right order won't convert to a time correctly. A "Julian" date/time is only something that software programs would generate and use - the number would be complete nonsense to anyone trying to read it.

Excel 2002 (XP) and Excel 2003 might work differently.

I have come across this issue again. Is there no way of going about changing it?
This is issue is on office XP...

Thanks