15 Excel Shortcuts For Today’S Date (Or Any Date)

Need to quickly insert the current date into your Excel spreadsheet? You’re in luck! Here are 15 Excel shortcuts to help you insert any date—today’s, tomorrow’s, or any other—in a flash. Say goodbye to tedious formatting and manual entry—you’ll save time and energy with these shortcuts.

Understanding Excel’s Date Functions

Excel stores dates as serial numbers, making calculations easy. With functions like TODAY(), MONTH(), and YEAR(), you can extract specific values from a date. The NETWORKDAYS() function calculates business days between two dates. Need the last day of a month? EOMONTH() to the rescue! Formatting dates comes in handy too, with custom formatting or pre-defined date formats. If working with international clients or colleagues, remember that date formats can differ.

Knowing these functions saves time and streamlines work processes. Plus, you’ll avoid mistakes and errors when working with dates. For instance, when manually calculating the number of days between two dates, it’s easy to include weekends or holidays. Use NETWORKDAYS() to ensure only business days count.

The Gregorian calendar replaced the Julian calendar in 1582. The Julian calendar had been in use since Roman times, but it didn’t accurately reflect a year’s duration (11 minutes too long). This led to a gradual drift over time.

Now let’s talk about Inputting Dates in Excel.

How to Input Dates in Excel

Want to input dates in Excel? It’s simple! Here are 5 key points:

• Format as MM/DD/YYYY or DD-MM-YYYY.
• Input today’s date with “=TODAY()“.
• Change format of cell with date to “Date.”
• Input specific date with one of those formats.
• Put apostrophe before it to enter as text; e.g. ‘03/15/2021.

Excel will recognize dates, and you can do various functions with them. For example, sort data by dates or use “DATEDIF” to calculate time between dates.

Regional settings or language version may vary date input. Before 1904, Mac computers used a different system to count days since Jan 1st, 1904. So, if you’re using Excel on a Mac and dealing with pre-1904 dates, you may have issues.

Now, some Excel shortcuts for today’s date (or any date):

Excel Shortcuts for Today’s Date

Time is money when using Excel. Manually inputting today’s date into multiple cells is a waste of time. Use Excel shortcuts! This guide covers three types of date shortcuts.

The first, for quickly entering today’s date, is great for project timelines. The second includes both the date and time, useful for logging tasks. The third is for quickly inputting the first day of the month, tracking data trends. Let’s jump in and start saving time!

Easily Input Today’s Date with a Shortcut

Input today’s date faster with this simple shortcut! Follow these 6 easy steps:

1. Select the cell to enter date.
2. Press CTRL + ;
3. See the current date in the selected cell.
4. No need to type out date manually.
5. This shortcut works for any cell format, including text or numbers.
6. Use this shortcut daily for added efficiency.

Shortcuts like this can save time. Don’t type out the date each time, use the shortcut! Also, there are other shortcuts to input today’s date or any other desired date. Learning these shortcuts can help improve productivity and make using Excel better.

Set up a few favorites for quick access to shortcuts you use often. Explore Excel tools to automate tasks and increase efficiency.

Now, let’s look at another useful shortcut for inputting today’s date and time.

Input Today’s Date and Time with a Quick Shortcut

Inputting date and time into Microsoft Excel manually can be tedious. But don’t worry, there’s a shortcut that makes it easy! Just follow these steps:

1. Select the cell.
2. Press “Ctrl” + “;”, for the current date.
3. Press “Ctrl” + “Shift” + “;” for the time.

This shortcut will save time and prevent mistakes. Plus, when you open the workbook, it updates automatically.

If you use Excel a lot, you can set up a macro to apply the shortcut to a range of cells. This way, you can update all your spreadsheets with date and time in seconds.

Another shortcut you can try is inputting the first day of each month. Here’s how:

1. Select the cell.
2. Type “=DATE(YEAR(TODAY()),MONTH(TODAY()),1)” (without quotes).
3. Press “Enter”.

You can also automate this with a macro. So, now you can have up-to-date monthly data quickly and accurately.

Quickly Input the First Day of the Month with a Simple Shortcut

Input the First Day of the Month in a Snap! Here’s How:

1. Select the cell where you want the date.
2. Press ‘=’ & ‘DATE’.
3. Type in the year & month number inside parentheses.
4. Close parentheses & hit enter.

No more manual input or calculations for the first day of the month. This shortcut is fast and error-free. Ideal for those using Excel for financial tracking, project management or data analysis.

One user shared their struggles with manual data entry – they were always afraid of making mistakes and it was time-consuming. After learning this trick, they saved themselves hours of work each week.

Ready to dive deeper? Let’s explore more Excel Shortcuts to make spreadsheet work a breeze!

Excel Shortcuts for Specific Dates

Using Excel? Be efficient! Shortcuts can help. Let’s focus on those for dates. Need to quickly input a date? Or find the first or last day of the month? We have the answers. Check out these useful Excel shortcuts! They’ll save you time and make you more productive.

Input a Specific Date with an Excel Shortcut

Inputting a date with an Excel shortcut is great for accuracy and time-saving. No need to type out dates or switch between calendars and spreadsheets. This trick enters any date within seconds. However, it only works for static dates. Dynamic dates that update with each day? Use the =TODAY() function instead. Don’t miss out! Master this technique and optimize your workflow.

Next, learn how to input the first day of the year with an easy shortcut.

Input the First Day of the Year with an Easy Shortcut

To quickly type the first day of the year in an Excel sheet? Follow these 6 steps!

1. Choose the cell where you want to enter the date.
2. Type “=DATE(YEAR(A1),1,1)” in the formula bar. A1 can be swapped out with any cell that has January 1st of any year.
3. Hit “Enter.”
4. The cell will showcase January 1st of the current year.
5. To format it in your desired date format, right-click on the cell and click on “Format Cells.”
6. Pick a date format from the “Category” section and click “OK.”

Use this shortcut when you need to type the first day of any year on your worksheet.

Pro Tip: Modify this shortcut to enter any other specific date using different values for month and day instead of 1.

Easily Input the Last Day of the Month with an Excel Shortcut

Select the cell where you want the last day of the month. Then, press “Ctrl + ;” to enter today’s date. Afterwards, type “+1” and hit “Enter“. Now, with the new date, press “Ctrl + Shift + #“.

Voilà! You have just saved time and streamlined your work process by quickly entering deadlines or end-of-the-month data without manually checking the month. Plus, this shortcut works for any month!

As a pro tip, combine the shortcut with Excel functions such as IF statements or calculations to create spreadsheets that update automatically based on today’s date or other variables.

Now, let’s move on to learning about Excel shortcuts for relative dates.

Excel Shortcuts for Relative Dates

Struggled with dates in Excel? Been there. With the right Excel shortcuts, working with relative dates can be easy. This section discusses shortcuts that’ll save you time. We’ll start with a shortcut to input a date relative to today. Then, an easy way to input the first day of the previous month. Lastly, how to input the last day of the previous year with an Excel shortcut. Let’s get started!

Input a Date Relative to Today with an Excel Shortcut

Select the cell to input the date. Press the equal sign and type “TODAY()” in the parentheses. To enter a date relative to today, type “+/-“ and number of days in parentheses. For example, type “TODAY()+1” for tomorrow’s date. Press Enter after typing. The cell will display the calculated value.

Using shortcuts for Relative Dates makes users more flexible and saves time. Follow the instructions to input dates relative to today. Become more productive and efficient when handling data.

Our next heading will explain Quickly Inputting the First Day of the Previous Month with an Excel Shortcut.

Quickly Input the First Day of the Previous Month with an Excel Shortcut

Input the first day of last month with an Excel shortcut in 6 easy steps!

1. Open a worksheet and select the cell.
2. Then press Ctrl + ; to insert today’s date.
3. Highlight the cell and press Ctrl + 1 to open the Format Cells box.
4. Select “Custom” from the Category list, type “mm/01/yyyy” in the Type field, and click OK.
5. The cell now displays “mm/01/yyyy“, the first day of last month.

Save time and increase productivity by using this shortcut! Calculate important financial data and track important dates quickly. No more manual entry of dates. Hello, efficiency!

Learn how to input the last day of last year with an Excel shortcut. Keep reading!

Input the Last Day of the Previous Year with an Excel Shortcut

Inputting the last day of the previous year using Excel shortcuts is great for recording transaction dates for accounting. Companies can use this to gain financial insight and make sure they follow regulations.

These shortcuts have increased productivity in many industries. Manual dates aren’t needed as often, since tasks are automated with shortcuts like ‘Inputting the Last Day of Previous Year’.

In 1987, when Microsoft first released Excel, these shortcuts were not popular. Now they are essential components of productivity and automation software tools around the world.

FAQs about 15 Excel Shortcuts For Today’S Date (Or Any Date)

What are the 15 Excel Shortcuts for Today’s Date (or Any Date)?

There are several Excel shortcuts that can be used to quickly insert the current date or any specific date. Here are 15 of them:

1. Ctrl+; (semicolon) inserts today’s date.
2. Ctrl+Shift+; (semicolon) inserts the current time.
3. Ctrl+Shift+# (hashtag) formats the date as a number.
4. Ctrl+Shift+@ formats the date as time.
5. Ctrl+Shift+$ formats the date as currency.
6. Ctrl+Shift+% formats the date as a percentage.
7. Ctrl+Shift+^ (caret) formats the date in scientific notation.
8. Ctrl+Shift+~ formats the date in the general number format.
9. Ctrl+Shift+* (asterisk) selects the current region around the active cell.
10. Ctrl+Shift+: (colon) selects the entire row.
11. Ctrl+Shift+” (quotation mark) copies the value from the cell above.
12. Ctrl+’ (apostrophe) copies the formula from the cell above.
13. Alt+= (equal sign) inserts the sum formula for the selected cells.
14. F2 allows you to edit the selected cell.
15. Ctrl+Enter fills the selected cells with the current entry.