I’m tweaking my default template so it’s easier for me to use Calc in my daily basis.
I found MANY posts on how to change time default (the solution is always linked to the timezone), but I want to change the time so instead of HH:MM:SS is just HH:MM, or even [RED] HH:MM so there is no way it’s linked to the timezone settings.
How do I do that?
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A spreadsheet has no dates nor times… Spreadsheets store dates and times as formatted day numbers and fractions of days.
Zero formatted as date-time is 1899-12-30 00:00
44808,75 is today at 6pm.
You can store data in a database that supports timezones.
Maybe I didn’t explain myself correctly, I just want to modify the default format for times. So if I write down 13:00 it stays as 13:00 and not as 13:00:00 as it works right now because the default format on Calc is HH:MM:SS instead of HH:MM.
There is no auto-formatting feature which guesses a number format according to what you type. Either you do formatting or you get some predefined output format. Just use cell styles for special numbers.
But if I type 13:30, Calc automatically reads it as a time and change it to the default time format, wich is HH:MM:SS. I want this to happen the same, but instead of using the HH:MM:SS format, using HH:MM.
Simply apply the wanted number format in order to override the unwanted default. Simple as that.
That’s what I’ve been doing so far, but it’s annoying because I rarely use seconds. This is why I want to directly change the default.
I have never seen that the additional :00 imposes any problem. The missing centuries in 2-digit years impose real problems but not the additional seconds. At least 23:00:00 makes clear that the value is 23 hours but not 23 minutes.
I appreciate that you are dedicating time and patience to respond to my questions and also your recommendations. But I’d like to change the default anyway because I know my context and I know that I’m talking about hours and not minutes. Also, I assume that it might be easily reversible, so no harm gets done, and the learning process can be applied to other default formats as well, not just time (eg. let’s say I want the default currency format to avoid the space between the numbers and the euro symbol).
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But I’d like to change the default anyway…
Well I think it will not work.
The default format for all cells is the “Default” cell style.
But you can’t just set all cells to a time format, because then numbers won’t be recognized correctly.
The basics of internal time have already been explained to you by @Villeroy.
I would like to suggest the following workaround:
Open an empty table.
In the sidebar at Format Templates ( F11 ) you will find the cell styles.
Click on the cell style “Standard” and choose New.
In the dialog “Cell style”, in the tab Organise" enter a suitable name, e.g. “Time HH:MM”.
In the “Numbers” tab, select the format HH:MM for Time and OK.
You can now save the empty table as a document template and set it as “Default”.
The next time you open Calc, the cell style will be available.
Select the cells to be formated and double-click on the new cell style.
I see, so I can’t change the default format for fractions either from # ?/? to # ??/?? without using cell styles?
Cell styles is the easiest way for all formatting to be used repeatedly.
You will find that it is quite easy if you have created the right (own) cell styles beforehand.
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