How to automatically insert the current date

**scottthomascarter** · 04-13-2011, 01:17 PM

This may seem like a very basic question, but the twist is that I need to automatically insert the current date in a certain cell whenever a new record is started. For example, my records are standard row by row entries. In this example in column A I would like the current date to appear, but only once column B has an entry (anything but blank). Can this be done automatically, and so that column A (the "target cell") can also be locked?
Thanks for any help.

**tlafferty** · 04-13-2011, 01:20 PM

Assuming your data for a new record starts at A2, put this formula in the date cell to the right of A2:
=if(a2<>"",today(),"")

**scottthomascarter** · 04-14-2011, 11:48 AM

Perfect! Thank you for that.

**brokenbiscuits** · 04-14-2011, 12:19 PM

Not sure if it's something you need to consider, but just so you're aware - using that formula means that it will always show today's date. So today they'll show 04.14.11, but tomorrow they'll show 04.15.11.

Just by the wording of your question, that didn't sound like what you wanted to happen, it sounded more like you wanted to track when rows are created?