How to insert current date and time in a cell in Excel 2013

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When we work in Excel, we sometimes require to enter current date or time. The purpose may be to maintain log of activities or tracking some changes.

There are mainly two methods to insert current date & time in a cell in Excel 2013:     

1. Dynamic – A date or time that updates when the worksheet is recalculated
2. Static – A value in worksheet that doesn't change

Inserting "DYNAMIC" date and time

TODAY and NOW functions are generally used to insert dynamic current date and time respectively.

Syntax for the TODAY function is:

=TODAY()

NOW function is used to insert "current time" which is dynamic

Syntax for NOW function is very similar to TODAY:

=NOW()

Important Note: As you might have noticed, these functions have no arguments i.e. () does not contain anything. As a result, the data updates each time the worksheet is recalculated.

Inserting "STATIC" date and time

Select the cell into which you want to insert current date or time

To insert current date >>> Press CTRL + semi-colon (;)

To insert current time >>> Press CTRL + SHIFT + semi-colon (;)

To insert both date and time >>> Press CTRL + semi-colon (;), then press SPACE and then CTRL + SHIFT + semi-colon (;)

Important Note: In both the above cases, Excel will give date format as per the default settings. You can change the format from cell format menu [Shortcut: "Ctrl+1"] in "Number" tab >> Date