You build a worksheet by entering data, such as numbers, text, dates, times, and formulas. You can enter up to 512 characters in a cell. You can cancel an entry by pressing ESC, or you can confirm the entry by pressing ENTER or the arrow keys, or by clicking outside the cell.
Text entries can contain letters, numbers, or a combination of letters and numbers. Any entry that is all letters is considered to be text and is automatically preceded by a text prefix character. These characters indicate that you are entering text and they also set alignment for the cell.
Text-prefix character | Effect |
' (apostrophe) | Left alignment |
" (quotation mark) | Right alignment |
^ (caret) | Center alignment |
A a text prefix character is automatically inserted when you enter a street address such as 10 Main Street. Otherwise, when the first character in an entry is a number, the entry is considered to be numeric and a text prefix character is not inserted. If you want to enter numbers as text, you must insert the text prefix character yourself.
Numeric entries include numbers, formulas, and @functions. Formulas calculate or combine numbers and text. @Functions are built-in formulas that calculate using numbers or text.
You can enter a number one way (for example, as a percentage) and then change the number format to display ithe number in a different way (for example, as currency). Changing the format changes how the number is displayed, but does not change how it is stored or how the number is used in calculations.
When you enter numbers, they are automatically formatted as Comma, Percent, or Scientific depending on the symbols you use. For example, if you enter 37%, the number automatically displays in Percent format. If you enter 27,322, the number automatically displays in Comma format.
Dates entered as Apr-98, 09-Apr, 09-Apr-98, or 04/09/98 are automatically formatted as dates. Times entered in any of the standard time formats, except hh.mm (hour.minutes), are automatically formatted as times. When you enter a plain number, such as 3700 or 37.50, the number is formatted in the default format, initially General Format.
If you format a number and the cell appears filled with *** (asterisks), the column is not wide enough to display the number using the format you selected and you must widen the column.
You can enter a date or time, for example, 04/9/98 or 11:10 PM, as either text or a number. When you want to enter dates or times as text, remember to enter a text prefix character first, if the date or time begins with a number.
You can use dates and times entered as numbers in calculations. For example, you can calculate the number of days in between two dates. You can also use @functions, such as @DATE, to enter dates and calculate with them.
Note Invalid dates display as *** (asterisks) and invalid times as either 12:00 AM, or 00:00 in the current time format.