How can I use minutes and seconds

I'm trying to create a spreadsheet (Excel97) to calculate average handle
time for a call center. Each entry will be in minutes and seconds. No
matter what cell format I seem to choose, it just converts the entry
into a time of day, which is not what I need.

I want to enter the data as follows.

8:14 - (this would be 8 mintues, 14 seconds)

I'd like to be able to sum and average the numbers as well (all in
minutes and seconds), but getting the format correct is causing
difficulty. Any help would be most appreciated, thanks !


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Message posted from http://www.ExcelForum.com/

It works fine but you need to enter it as 0:8:14,
then when you sum the cells use custom format [mm]:ss
Time will always be part of a day unless you use decimal values
and enter it as 8.14 then when working with it convert it to time


one day is 1 in excel, one hour is 1/24, one minute is 1/24/60 or
1/1440

--

Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

(No private emails please, for everyone's
benefit keep the discussion in the newsgroup/forum)


"guilbj2 " wrote in message
...
I'm trying to create a spreadsheet (Excel97) to calculate average handle
time for a call center. Each entry will be in minutes and seconds. No
matter what cell format I seem to choose, it just converts the entry
into a time of day, which is not what I need.

I want to enter the data as follows.

8:14 - (this would be 8 mintues, 14 seconds)

I'd like to be able to sum and average the numbers as well (all in
minutes and seconds), but getting the format correct is causing
difficulty. Any help would be most appreciated, thanks !


---
Message posted from http://www.ExcelForum.com/

Hi

This shouldn't be a problem. Format the cells as mm:ss to input time. If
your data might go over 60 minutes, but you still want it displayed as
minutes, rather than hours, use [mm]:ss
Excel stores time as part of a day (ie there is a normal number 'behind'
your time), so you can do maths on it just like any other numbers.

--
Andy.


"guilbj2 " wrote in message
...
I'm trying to create a spreadsheet (Excel97) to calculate average handle
time for a call center. Each entry will be in minutes and seconds. No
matter what cell format I seem to choose, it just converts the entry
into a time of day, which is not what I need.

I want to enter the data as follows.

8:14 - (this would be 8 mintues, 14 seconds)

I'd like to be able to sum and average the numbers as well (all in
minutes and seconds), but getting the format correct is causing
difficulty. Any help would be most appreciated, thanks !


---
Message posted from http://www.ExcelForum.com/

Hi guilbj2!

The trouble is that your time entry of 8:14 is interpreted by Excel as
8 hours 14 minutes

To enter 8 minutes 14 seconds you need to use 0:8:14

You can either enter the times 0:8:14 or use 8:14 and create a helper
column which divides your entry by 60 and formats mm:ss (or if the
time can exceed 60 minutes, format [mm]:ss or hh:mm:ss

--
Regards
Norman Harker MVP (Excel)
Sydney, Australia

"guilbj2 " wrote in message
...
I'm trying to create a spreadsheet (Excel97) to calculate average
handle
time for a call center. Each entry will be in minutes and seconds.
No
matter what cell format I seem to choose, it just converts the entry
into a time of day, which is not what I need.

I want to enter the data as follows.

8:14 - (this would be 8 mintues, 14 seconds)

I'd like to be able to sum and average the numbers as well (all in
minutes and seconds), but getting the format correct is causing
difficulty. Any help would be most appreciated, thanks !


---
Message posted from http://www.ExcelForum.com/