Excel won't allow times to be negative

[Guest]

I keep track of times in "mm:ss.00" format, and i've set up a formula that
deducts week B's time from week A's time - in order to show improvement. If
the time decreases week to week excel outputs a positive to represent this. I
would like it to ouput a negative number to represent increases in time.

Problem is, excel won't allow times to be negative - if they are it fills
the cell with "#" symbols.

Does anyone have any solutions to this.

Thanks

 

[Guest]

not exactly sure, will this help:

=IF(x<0,-(calculation),calculation) (neg,pos)

 

[Ardus Petus]

Tools>Options>Calculation: 1904 calendar

HTH

 

[Bob Phillips]

Changing to 1904 calendar affects many things and isn't always desirable.

How about doing something like

=IF(A1>B1,A1-B1,B1-A1)

and then in an adjacent cell add

=IF(B1>A1,"Decrease","")

or even use conditional formatting to show decreases.

--
HTH

Bob Phillips

(remove nothere from email address if mailing direct)