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You can use the Format Cells feature in Excel with the syntax [mm]:ss to format time as minutes and seconds.
The following example shows how to do so in practice.
Example: Format Time in Minutes and Seconds in Excel
Suppose you would like to enter a time value of 10 minutes and 15 minutes into Excel.
When entering time values into Excel, the first number will always be interpreted as hours.
Thus, to enter a time value of 10 minutes and 15 seconds you must type 0:10:15.
We can use this format to enter various time values into Excel:
Now to only display the minutes and seconds, you must highlight the cell range A2:A10 and then right click and then click Format Cells from the dropdown menu:
In the new window that appears, click Custom from the Category box, then type [mm]:ss into the Type box:
Once you click OK, each of the time values in column A will be formatted to only show minutes and seconds:
Now if we perform some calculation with these times, Excel will know to interpret the times as minutes and seconds.
For example, suppose we add the minutes and seconds in cell A2 with the minutes and seconds in cell A3:
Excel correctly adds 10 minutes and 15 seconds with 19 minutes and 1 second and produces a final time of 29 minutes and 16 seconds, formatted as 29:16.