How to create stopwatch in Excel worksheet?

If you need a stopwatch in your Excel worksheet, it can help you track the time it takes to complete tasks. Imagine having a Start, Stop, and Reset button to control the stopwatch, as shown in the screenshot below. Clicking the Start button begins the timer, the Stop button pauses it, and the Reset button clears the time. In this article, we will show you step-by-step how to create a simple yet functional stopwatch in Excel using VBA code.

Create a stopwatch with three buttons by using VBA code

 Create a stopwatch with three buttons by using VBA code

To create a stopwatch with three buttons, Start, Stop and Reset, please do with the following steps one by one.

Firstly, insert three command buttons.

1. Click "Developer" >" Insert" > "Command Button", see screenshot:

2. Then drag the mouse to draw a button, after inserting the button, you can change the button caption, please click "Developer" > "Properties", in the" Properties" dialog, enter the new caption "Start” for this button in the textbox beside the "Caption", see screenshots:

3. Repeat the above two steps to insert other two buttons and caption them as “Stop” and “Reset”, see screenshot:

4. After inserting the buttons, exit the design mode by clicking "Developer" > "Design Mode".

Secondly, create a VBA code.

5. And then, right click the current worksheet tab, and choose "View Code", in the popped out "Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications" window, please copy and paste the following code into the "Sheet Code":

Public StopIt As Boolean
Public ResetIt As Boolean
Public LastTime
Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
Dim StartTime, FinishTime, TotalTime, PauseTime
StopIt = False
ResetIt = False
If Range("C2") = 0 Then
  StartTime = Timer
  PauseTime = 0
  LastTime = 0
Else
  StartTime = 0
  PauseTime = Timer
End If
StartIt:
  DoEvents
  If StopIt = True Then
    LastTime = TotalTime
    Exit Sub
  Else
    FinishTime = Timer
    TotalTime = FinishTime - StartTime + LastTime - PauseTime
    TTime = TotalTime * 100
    HM = TTime Mod 100
    TTime = TTime \ 100
    hh = TTime \ 3600
    TTime = TTime Mod 3600
    MM = TTime \ 60
    SS = TTime Mod 60
    Range("C2").Value = Format(hh, "00") & ":" & Format(MM, "00") & ":" & Format(SS, "00") & "." & Format(HM, "00")
    If ResetIt = True Then
      Range("C2") = Format(0, "00") & ":" & Format(0, "00") & ":" & Format(0, "00") & "." & Format(0, "00")
      LastTime = 0
      PauseTime = 0
      End
    End If
    GoTo StartIt
  End If
End Sub
Private Sub CommandButton2_MouseDown(ByVal Button As Integer, ByVal Shift As Integer, ByVal X As Single, ByVal Y As Single)
  StopIt = True
End Sub
Private Sub CommandButton3_Click()
  Range("C2").Value = Format(0, "00") & ":" & Format(0, "00") & ":" & Format(0, "00") & "." & Format(0, "00")
  LastTime = 0
  ResetIt = True
End Sub

Note: In the above code, "C2" is the cell where the stopwatch time will be inserted, and the "CommandButton1", "CommandButton2", "CommandButton3" are the button names, you can view the exact button name from the "Name Box", see screenshot:

Thirdly, format the stopwatch time cell.

6. Then you should format the time cell as "Text" format, and you can change the cell size, font, font color, background, etc. as you need, see screenshot:

7. After finishing above steps, from now on, when you click "Start" button, the time will start, and when you click the "Stop" button, it will stop time. The "Reset" button will reset the time, see screenshot:

Demo: Create a stopwatch with three buttons by using VBA code