Automatic Timecode Format in Excel

One of the nice things about typing timecode into Avid is that it fills in the colons, semi-colons and leading zeros automatically for you as you type. So it can be annoying when using Excel, for things like timing sheets or continuities, to have to manually input those characters. Here’s a way to add a custom format in Excel so it will automatically format the timecode, just like Avid.


First, select the empty cells you want to automatically format to timecode when you type. Then go up to Format and choose Cells. Under Category choose Custom, and in the Type field paste this:


00\:00\:00\;00


Then click OK.

Now when you type numbers into those cells it will format it like timecode. For example, if you type 01051418 it will automatically change it to 01:05:14;18. And if you type 0516 it will automatically format it to 00:00:05;16, adding the leading zeros.


If you want to make the timcode formatted like Non-Drop Frame Timecode, with a colon instead of a semi-colon for the frame #, use this as the custom format text:


00\:00\:00\:00


If you have any tips to share about working with timecode in Excel please leave a comment below.