[Excel Practice 1] Input :: How to enter numbers, letters, dates, times, and double lines
Different ways to type
- As you may have noticed, it’s very easy to write in a cell.
- You just click and tap on the keyboard.
- We’re not here to tell you how to do that, so read on for some tips.
What you type will be separated by large letters, numbers, and dates.
- Speaking of which, as you type, you’ll see it sorted as follows.
- It is important to understand the following so that you can easily understand the cell formatting in the future.
![](https://i0.wp.com/blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiANjSJxOWbOgGGIXlb_-yCj-sQfSy__RtzUKOGLO195-Bc9MzWaS4MDx1eF0N68oN8M6y46PF8BLI8USmA-DwcbEfhNst7Wvqh6mvYN0_ec_w6DbySy-lrnmkVj0OsZ1IQL5HhAXQrxcfGgUNs-Y8tK3CyRKytU4DeWfQoMmeELJkEJgwEBJsPFk5GsCk/s320/1.png?resize=320%2C145&ssl=1)
- On the left, all the characters are recognized as letters
- On the right, dates are recognized as dates and numbers are recognized as numbers.
- You can tell by looking at the alignment: dates and numbers have a default alignment to the right, and letters to the left.
- The above should come naturally to you. “Wow, it recognizes dates as dates, numbers as numbers, and letters as letters!”.
I switched it to left alignment, so did it recognize it as a letter?
- No. What I said above is that that’s the default alignment, but changing the alignment doesn’t turn numbers into letters and letters into numbers.
So why do I need to know this?
- You’ll need it later when you learn about cell formatting.
- So being aware of it can make a big difference in your understanding of cell formatting.
- Let’s look at an example of cell formatting.
![](https://i0.wp.com/blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwg6Wt-U8cMuzvMPAYd5WzffORkQrxy673R_jmgB-n5-usRQU_kD8t3EdzFnW0ZsfwOAlGWJFGVZDWFQ-jT9Q0uF1AJ-e-1CTSZTJu7Jr0ki0bakG70mThsi0U6ovoWT8gJV_APAYtkTx4lenp1GX5AyqxP4sSFjhhd51PORCQ6H_jRzA56kjc71irXGA/s1600/2.png?resize=292%2C271&ssl=1)
- The dates above all have the same value, 2023-01-01, in the date format.
- As long as I change it to the format I want, whatever date I type in there will be displayed in the format I specified.
- The day of the week will also be displayed automatically, but the cell formatting will be different next time… 😀
- If you write the date in text, you’ll always have to manually edit it.
- Let’s do it automatically, because our time is valuable. 😀
How to enter a date
- This is a trick that many people don’t realize.
- When you write today’s date, do you write 2023-01-21? If not, you don’t know this trick.
- Turn on Excel and experiment.
![](https://i0.wp.com/blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqpnDA8ndQqQlJzp7iwKZZ6qvI2OEDurr3-hpq23Lm3QSzcsMEBfAMeSJDg8mnm4w6zDx-_2k_9lhTdZySDy02Hepgmf1vomE1pq92GAMS3O_y84t1S5vs-Aa_6x6RTbEM_jG0X07wD8WZdLi4AxDq5JxLXOq3iWbfooKRwp90OYxIpgZzX4GdHfxVHrM/s1600/3.png?resize=141%2C77&ssl=1)
- 1-1?
- The intent of the input is to say January 1.
![](https://i0.wp.com/blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtOYtmHmpXBQY9VP3yEf36IiVyBYzZafezx5WFytl9qRJbZpFy4fIqfK6U9xgmC6nQtrnVJoGjVzlqh6JtLcQMlNFiU2MeObf2ltYp7e_mpyObaN_JFXawALXv-ioj_aShjjs4HwFmgG5W4zA3y1RoniRCtybeeHL2qMZcYEMhqyWU0Z6tC7NLa1iD0JY/s320/4.png?resize=320%2C131&ssl=1)
- The text comes out as January 1, and look at the image above. The date has been successfully entered as 2023-01-01.
- You want it to look like 2023-01-01? That’s for the next cell formatting time… XD
- Bottom line.
- When entering dates for the current year, you can write “month-date”.
- Adding
- Hours are entered using a colon (:).
- 2023-01-01 11:10
- 2023-01-01 23:10
Type two lines in one space
- Press Alt + Enter to enter two lines in one space.
![](https://i0.wp.com/blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaE3WtAXSP5anD9QMEocL4-Qdlx8Fc8oiOapU_DhmHpabyBq8eQb-wHwDeyr7OBm1IPS9MR2EE0Ygub0c6XkaqeWf7OfxTtMc5tddw2_eED_-POWO1rkEjc0NAmLQg1EnsFXRNxajsRqwhueQMUAxwkmpBzmio6DwYIIG6c3JhKpcrumRzgqisN94nN4w/s320/5.png?resize=320%2C162&ssl=1)
- In the picture above, I tried to add a border with the application, which is often used in tables.
Pressing Alt + Enter doesn’t change anything.
- You need to select a cell and double-click it, or press F2 to press Alt + Enter while the cursor is blinking.
![](https://i0.wp.com/blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6IbkNSW32ZlV5DGkQHIGGXW9RRQtSjZZms788-dKk06x-RURyreBmtd9D2mcJCqg507-AdhOFX8AJuo2SrqAzdB-EIaWnWitVzMORk6TVCljdT-pPptLOYhqFjghyphenhyphenD1LQu1HQ9xtOrnz_Yt3_j0tSuEBhBQMWcFoTMDIJN1Hih09wwikCG8dfBslF5GQ/s320/6.png?resize=273%2C320&ssl=1)