Know+your+date

Do you want to know the current date?

A useful Excel formula  is the "NOW" function, which automatically plugs the current date and time into the spreadsheet. Just type =NOW into any cell, and Excel displays the date and time formatted according to the regional options set in Windows control panel. If you just want to see today's date, use the "TODAY" function, just type =TODAY, into the cell. However if you want to use either of these functions as a type of "time stamp" these functions don't do the job, because they are automatically recalculated whenever the sheet is calculated or the file is re-opened. The same cell that displayed today's date will display tomorrow's date when the spreadsheet is opened tomorrow. To insert a fixed "time stamp" date into a cell, a date that won't change, just hold down Ctrl while you press the semicolon key. To insert the current time (without a date), press Ctrl-Shift-Semicolon. Both of these commands are useful if you like to document your work by time. For example, you might want to keep track of when you added new data to your work sheet.