You can use a keyboard shortcut to enter today’s date in a cell, but you can also use it in lots of other places in Excel.

The keyboard shortcut to enter today’s date is Ctrl + ; (that’s the semi-colon).

The date is entered as if you keyed it in. It is not a formula.

If you want a formula that always displays the current day’s date use

=TODAY()

You can use the keyboard shortcut

• when a cell is selected to enter today’s date in that cell
• when you are typing in a cell and want to add today’s date to the text or a formula
• when you are in a text box or other graphic and want to insert today’s date
• when you are in a note or a comment, to enter today’s date
• when you are in a dialog and need today’s date

It works pretty much everywhere in Excel.