PHD reader and commenter Vishy contributed this post through e-mail. Thank you so much Vishy for this very useful tip.
The Problem:
- You have created a specific view of your data in Excel (say by filtering, zooming out, changing column width, hiding specific rows, customizing window settings, print settings etc.). This is your reference point say view ABC.
- Then, you change some of it (say remove certain filters, change column width etc.), and then some more.
- ABC view is so helpful as a reference that you need to revisit that view over and over again after changing it in different ways (say applying different filters each time)
Solution: Custom Views in Excel
- Define and use Custom Views (a set of display and print settings that you can name and apply to a workbook)
Create a custom view in Excel 2003, 2007
-
Change the settings that you want to save in the view. - (2003) View menu >> Custom Views
- (2007) View tab >> Workbook Views group >> Custom Views
- Select Add
- In the Name box, type a name for the view (Make sure to include the active sheet name in the name of a view to make it easier to identify).
- Under Include in view, select the options you want.
Activate a Custom View to See it
- (2003) View menu >> Custom Views
- (2007) View tab >> Workbook Views group >> Custom Views
- In the Views box, select the name of the view you want, and then select Show.
Delete a custom view
- (2003) View menu >> Custom Views
- (2007) View tab >> Workbook Views group >> Custom Views
- In the Views box, select the name of the view you want, and then select Delete.
You can use a custom view to save specific display settings (such as column widths, row heights, hidden rows and columns, cell selections, filter settings, and window settings) and print settings (such as page settings, margins, headers and footers, and sheet settings) for a worksheet so that you can quickly apply these settings to that worksheet when needed.
You can also include a specific print area in a custom view. You can create multiple custom views per worksheet, but you can only apply a custom view to the worksheet that was active when you created the custom view. If any worksheet in the workbook contains an Excel table (2007) or Excel list (2003), the Custom Views command will not be available anywhere in the workbook.
PHD’s note: Once again thanks to Vishy for sharing this idea. Please drop your comments here to share your questions or love, I am sure Vishy will respond.
13 Responses to “Convert fractional Excel time to hours & minutes [Quick tip]”
Hi Purna..
Again a great tip.. Its a great way to convert Fractional Time..
By the way.. Excel has two great and rarely used formula..
=DOLLARFR(7.8,60) and =DOLLARDE(7.48,60)
basically US Account person uses those to convert some currency denomination.. and we can use it to convert Year(i.e 3.11 Year = 3 year 11 month) and Week(6.5 week = 6 week 5 days), in the same manner...
This doesn't work for me. When applying the custom format of [h]:mm to 7.8 I get 187:12
Any ideas why?
@Jason
7.8 in Excel talk means 7.8 days
=7.8*24
=187.2 Hrs
=187 Hrs 12 Mins
If you follow Chandoo's instructions you will see that he divides the 7.8 by 24 to get it to a fraction of a day
Simple, assuming the fractional time is in cell A1,
Use below steps to convert it to hours & minutes:
1. In the target cell, write =A1/24
2. Select the target cell and press CTRL+1 to format it (you can also right click and select format cells)
3. Select Custom from “Number” tab and enter the code [h]:mm
4. Done!
Hi, sorry to point this out but Column C Header is misspelt 'Hours Palyed'
good one
So how do I go the other way and get hours and minutes to fractional time?
If you have 7.5 in cell A1,
- Use int(A1) to get the hours.
- Use mod(A1,1)*60 to get minutes.
If you have 7:30 (formatted as time) in A1
- Use hours(a1) to get hours
- Use minutes(a1) to get minutes.
I had the same issue. You can solve it by changing the format as described above:
Right click cell > Format Cells > (In Number tab) > Custom > Then enter the code [h]:mm
([hh]:mm and [hhh]:mm are nice too if you want to show leading zeros)
Thanks guys, these are the tips I'm looking for.
...dividing the number of minutes elapsed by the percent change is my task - "int" is the key this time
It doesnt work for greater than 24 hours
It returns 1:30 for 25.5 hours. It should have returned 25:30
Ideally I would right function as
=QUOTIENT(A1,1)&":"&MOD(A1,1)*60
Sorry, replied to wrong comment....
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I had the same issue. You can solve it by changing the format as described above:
Right click cell > Format Cells > (In Number tab) > Custom > Then enter the code [h]:mm
([hh]:mm and [hhh]:mm are nice too if you want to show leading zeros)
Clever use of MOD here to extract the decimal part of a number. Divide a number containing a decimal by 1 and return the remainder. Humm. Very clever.
Thanks very much, extremely useful !