Excel 2000 in a Nutshell

Name

NOW

Synopsis

NOW provides an easy method for getting the current date and time. Excel gets the date and time value from your system clock, so make sure that clock is accurate. The time value changes only when you open the worksheet, or if you recalculate. This is the only function in this chapter that deals with both a date and a time value.

To Calculate

=NOW(  )

Unlike most functions, NOW has no arguments. To use it you simply type =Now( ).

NOW is typically used with other functions to return the current date and time. Figure 13-7 illustrates how NOW obtains the current date as an argument for NETWORKDAYS.

Quickly Finding a Date’s Serial Number

To view the actual serial number for the date and time value returned by NOW, simply change the cell formatting by selecting Format → Cells and then select the General option on the Number tab.