Apple Numbers cell programming

The NOW function will calculate the current date and time whenever it is activated, and will display all or part of that value depending on how you set the formula to display the result. The process is not continuous, though; like all Numbers functions, this one is activated by a change in the document.

The change can be as simple as clicking a checkbox cell to toggle it between 'true' and 'false'. Note that the change in the table will activate all functions on that table to recalculate, not just the one it is intended to update.

Here's an example.

The checkbox is in A1.

At 4:04 PM on the last day of January, 2023, I clicked cell A1 to make it show 'true'.

Cells F2 and F3 each contain the NOW() function, which immediately changed the date and time value displayed to the time of the most recent change of content in the table—the clicking of A1.

Cell F2 is formatted to display both the date and the time of day to the current minute.

Cell F3 is formatted to not display the date part and to show the time of day to and the time of day to the current second.

One minute and fifty five seconds later, I clicked cell A1 again, to toggle the checkbox to 'false'. Both copies of NOW changed their calculated value to show the then current time, using the same data format values to determine the precision of the display

The checkbox may be on the same table as the time display, or can be on a second table.

Or you could place several checkbox cells in a single column of the same table so that one was available when you had scrolled to a different part of the table.

Any data change on either table will activate all functions used in the spreadsheet, including the NOW function.

Regards,

Barry

=now()

it will not update in real time. It will update to the most recent time when there is an update needed for a calculation