Adding hh:mm times in a row as part of a "named" cell

[Joe]

Hello, I need to add up the times (in h:mm format) of a row of cells. The
sheet I have been given has its base cell (C7) that has been named as Mhours.
This is defined as adding the values in row seven cells from D to AA. The
values for these cells are copied from another spreadsheet where the hours
are displayed in the h:mm format.
My problem is that to calculate I have to drop the : and replace it with a .
instead. The sum of D7:AA7 is not a true h:mm value and, therefore, makes
the final value incorrect.
What formula should be in the definition of the named cell or is there an
alternative formula without naming the cell (C7)? I have tried the
'=TEXT(D7:AA7,"h:mm")' formula, but this does not work; an error seems to
indicate a conflict with the two :'s.
Thanks.

 

[Toppers]

Try:

=TEXT(SUM(D7:AA7),"[h]:mm")

 

[David Biddulph]

Why do you say that to calculate you have to drop the semi-colon and replace
it with a decimal point? If you have cells which are genuinely times in
Excel h:mm format, then you can calculate, and give the result in [h]:mm
format.
If your original cells are text, then you can convert them to Excel times by
a number of methods which you'll find outlined in the archive of this group.
In your numbers where in a column we would probablty recommend Data/ Text to
columns, but as you've got numbers in a row, one option is to use
=TIMEVALUE(A7) if your text in in A7. Another option is to take a blank
cell, copy it, select your text time cells, and Edit/ Paste Special/ Add,
then format as time.