Excel Format Question -- CC:SS treated as time HH:mm

[1clncc]

I have in one column 01:01; ... 25:99 etc referring to Bible
Chapter : Section's .
Excel is treating the column as Time HH:mm; converting some of the
cells:

a) some - -> HH:mm:00
b) some - - > 0.YYYYYYY

When I tried to convert the CC:SS into text, all becoming 0.YYYYYYY
etc.

Wondering
how can I keep the CC:SS format without being mixed with HH:mm?

 

[David Biddulph]

Format the cells as text *before* you enter the data.

 

[reno]

Another approach to avoid typing in the colons) is to use >Format>Custom
then "0"#":"###, whcih would produce a leading zero if not needed skip it.
you would enter 1225 and screen would show 01:225