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Enter Current Date and Time in LibreOffice Calc

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This guide explains how you can enter the current date and time in the LibreOffice Calc worksheet.

And it’s very easy.

Enter Current Date

You can use TODAY() function to enter today’s date. This function doesn’t take any argument. You can enter it to any cell to show the current date.

Today function
Today function

Remember, whenever you open the Calc spreadsheet, the date is updated with the current date.

Enter Current Time

To enter the current time, use the NOW() and TODAY() function both. Like the TODAY() function, NOW() also updates whenever the Calc sheet is recalculated. LibreOffice Calc sheet is recalculated almost every time you perform any activity – typing, saving, opening, etc. If you want to manually update, press F9.

If you enter only NOW() it will give you the date and time together. The date format should be based on LibreOffice profile, country – language settings. Same for the time as well.

Now Function
Now Function

To get the current time, use NOW() - TODAY() as a formaula as below.

Current time before formatting
Current time before formatting

But as you can see, it is a decimal number because LibreOffice Calc represents time as a number between 0 and 1. To convert it to a time, you have to apply a time format. Learn more about formatting cells.

Current time after formatting
Current time after formatting

Static Date and Time with Keyboard Shortcut

Ubuntu, Linux Mint and others

  • To enter a current date as a static date, press CTRL+; (semicolon). It will insert today’s date as a static value in the corresponding cell.
  • Similarly, to enter the current time as a static value, press CTRL+SHIFT+;.
Enter static date and time in Linux Mint
Enter static date and time in Linux Mint

Windows

  • To enter a current date as a static date, press CTRL+; (semicolon). It will insert today’s date as a static value in the corresponding cell.
  • Similarly, to enter the current time as a static value, press CTRL+SHIFT+;.

macOS

  • In macOS, to enter current date as static date, press COMMAND ⌘+;
  • There is no shortcuts for entering current time in macOS as per my knowledge.
Enter static date in macOS
Enter static date in macOS

Closing notes

I hope this guide helped you to understand the current date and time, including its static value in the LibreOffice Calc sheet.

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12 Comments
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Arto Lappalainen

This command doesn´t work: “To enter a current date as a static date, press CTRL+; (semicolon). It will insert today’s date as a static value in the corresponding cell.” 2020 12 28

Kenjitamurako

Any people on a gnome/ubuntu distribution having a problem might benefit from referencing: Ctrl+; doesn’t insert current date in LibreOffice Calc
If you’re affected solution is to type ibus-setup in terminal, go to emoji tab, and remove the ctrl semicolon entry.

Tom

Please flag windows specific stuff appropriately.

On a mac, command+; is the shortcut for current date. By default, there is no short cut for current time.

DiyarBiba

When I press CTRL+; then press enter, it will go to Adjacent cell, and when I press CTRL+SHIFt+;, the time comes in another cell!

Heikki Moisander

In case of international keybord ; = shift + ,
So you run out of luck with this guide.

gorge

hey there, your provided formula is working but if i apply in any other cell last cell time is also changing simultaneously 
why?

SUMAN

HOW TO ADD PAST DATE?

ccc

How do I write this in a cell:
This sheet was last accessed on <input date and time>.