# Excel Help: Want date to autofill then never change **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 7, 2008, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-help-want-date-to-autofill-then-never-change/459195 "2008-08-07T18:25:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-help-want-date-to-autofill-then-never-change/459195/1 "2008-08-07T18:25:08Z")
I am looking for a way for a date field in Excel to automatically apply today’s date when I enter data. That is straightforward enough but then I want that date to remain as is forever more. Unfortunately it seems to want to keep applying the current date. Is there a way to do this in an automated fashion? I know I could manually tell it to just be data and not autofill anymore but then I may as well just manually type in the date. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-help-want-date-to-autofill-then-never-change/459195/2 "2008-08-07T18:33:14Z")
You can definitely do it in VBA. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-help-want-date-to-autofill-then-never-change/459195/3 "2008-08-07T21:00:05Z")
You could write a macro that has it copy that row and do paste:special:values. StG ---
**Author:** ![Rhubarb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/59ef9b/32.png) [@Rhubarb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhubarb)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-help-want-date-to-autofill-then-never-change/459195/4 "2008-08-08T03:00:47Z")
FWIW, typing “ctrl-:” (control colon) will put today’s date in a cell as static data. It’s a lot easier than typing it all in every time, though not automatic. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-help-want-date-to-autofill-then-never-change/459195/5 "2008-08-08T18:50:31Z")
I came back to this today hoping that somebody would reveal a way of doing this without VBA code but apparently there isn’t a function that monitors another cell for change. You didn’t say whether or not you wanted a function or whether you wanted (or understood) VBA routines (macros). In VBA there is a Worksheet\_Change event which is useful for triggering an input into one cell when another one changes. Examples of the code including an auto time/date input method can be found at [this](http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/event.htm#autodate) link. I haven’t tried these and I’ve read that the event has some caveats like not working for reformats and comment changes. If you are familiar with VBA you may be able to toy around with one of these routines and fit them in to your application. Good Luck ---
**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-help-want-date-to-autofill-then-never-change/459195/6 "2008-08-08T20:05:57Z")
[QUOTE=Rhubarb] FWIW, typing “ctrl-:” (control colon) will put today’s date in a cell as static data. It’s a lot easier than typing it all in every time, though not automatic. [/QUOTE] Actually, I just tried it & its ctrl-; (control semi-colon). Ctrl-: (control colon) puts the time in the cell. Cool trick, though! Thanks.