Excel Ctrl+; Shortcut: Insert Today's Date as a Fixed Value
Logs, checklists and request trackers all need a date column. Typing the full date into each cell is about ten keystrokes every time, and it is easy to mistype a digit when you are doing it for the twentieth row. TL;DR: Ctrl+; enters today's date in the active cell. Select several cells first and finish with Ctrl+Enter to fill all of them. Steps Select the cell where the date should go and press…
When working with spreadsheets, inserting the current date is a common task. Typing the full date manually can be time-consuming and prone to errors. To quickly insert today's date, press Ctrl+; in the desired cell. This shortcut works across various versions of Excel, including the web version, and inserts the date as a fixed value, not a formula.
Unlike the =TODAY() function, which recalculates every time the workbook is opened, Ctrl+; writes the date once and keeps it fixed. To apply the shortcut to multiple cells, select the range first, then press Ctrl+;, and finally press Ctrl+Enter to fill all selected cells with the same date. It's important to note that using =TODAY() in columns like "date received" or "date completed" can cause issues, as the dates will change automatically.
The shortcut's behavior can be replicated in scripts using programming languages like Python with openpyxl or VBA in Excel. In both cases, writing a fixed date value ensures consistency, just like using the keyboard shortcut.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
