At 17:29 05/02/2015 -0500, Vince Bonly wrote:
On 2/4/2015 3:31 PM, Brian Barker wrote:
At 15:13 04/02/2015 -0500, Vince Bonly wrote:
On Feb 4, 2015, at 13:55, Brian Barker wrote:
From: Vince Bonly:
Date: Wed, 04 Feb 2015 11:51:53 -0500
Does a feature exist whereby I can insert Today's Date into a Calc cell?
Try:
o Enter =NOW()
o F2; F9; Enter; Enter.
After formatting the cells to Date (MMM D, YYYY) your suggestion of
=NOW()
Worked splendidly; thanks!
By itself, that won't do what you need. It creates a formula whose
value is the date (and possibly time) when the cell contents were
last calculated. If you enter it today you will see today's date,
but if you save the spreadsheet and reopen it next week you will
see *that* day's date, not the original date that I take it you want.
There are various ways to freeze the result of the formula so that
it becomes a value and will not change on future dates, and the
sequence F2, F9, Enter, Enter is one of them. Another is to copy
the cell contents back over themselves using Paste Special... with
Formulas unticked.
Actually, what I need is "current date" whenever I reopen the spreadsheet.
Forgive me, but I suspect that you don't! Yes, I understand that you
need to put the current date into your new entries you make on that
day, but surely you don't want all the date entries you made on
previous days automatically to update themselves to the same current
date - so that all dates are identical and no longer show the dates
the entries were made? That way, whenever you looked at the
spreadsheet, *every* date would be today!
I do not understand about the "F2, F9, Enter, Enter" sequence (is
that a separate/alternative sequence, or required with the =NOW()?); ...
It follows =NOW(), as described above.
... it does not work here (using AOO4.1.1, Spreadsheet) when I tried
that suggestion.
For you, the problem with =NOW() is that it is a formula, not a way
of inserting a fixed value. Like all formulae, it is recalculated as
appropriate. It means what it says: now, today, this very moment -
and it means that always. If you are to use it to create the current
date but which then remains as whatever it was when you entered it,
you need to evaluate the formula to a value, which then will not
change. There are various ways to do this:
o Enter =NOW()
o Select the cell.
o Copy the cell.
o Paste the copied value back over the cell, but using Edit | Paste
Special... (or Ctrl+Shift+V) instead of ordinary Paste.
o In the Paste Special dialogue, ensure that "Date & time" is ticked
but Formulae is not ticked.
(Er, you have to do *all* those steps: they are not alternatives.)
The other suggested sequence is another way to achieve the same effect:
o Enter =NOW()
o Select the cell.
o Press F2. This toggles Edit Mode, so you can now edit a formula in
the cell itself. You will see now the formula, not its current value.
o Press F9. This recalculates the contents of the cell formula. You
will see the current date and time in a pop-up.
o Press Enter. This accepts the value in the pop-up and enters it in
the cell. (This is now a value, no longer a formula.)
o Press Enter. This confirms the cell editing (undoing the effect of
F2 above), so the value is now reformatted according to the existing
cell format.
Maybe I need to preprogram the Function keys; I have not done that, as yet.
No need: these are default keyboard shortcuts.
I trust this helps.
Brian Barker
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