Problem adding more countdown timers

Hi I work in a school for the exams officer and am trying to create a spreadsheet that can be displayed at the front of the exam hall to advise the students of the start and finish times for the exams as well as having a countdown timer to show them how long they have left.

The spreadsheet should have the ability to have up to 5 separate examinations with countdown timers running simultaneously. I have created buttons and code for the first exam and could use this countdown timer for any other exams starting at the same time. However, the problem is that the exams do not all start at the same time - for example some of the languages papers are short and run consecutively during a single exam session but need to have individual timers. Also as soon as I type anything else the counter stops which I also do not want to happen.

I have attached my efforts to date - as you can see there are two sheets a front sheet which is what is displayed and a sheet that contains the examination details used to populate the various fields such as duration. There are three buttons at the end of the first exam Start, Stop and Reset. These all seem to work fine as long as you do not touch the sheet after starting the timer.

The code I currently have is as follows

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I also have the following on the sheet code

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I haven't looked at your code, but I think you are taking the wrong approach. You probably only need one timer. I would use the following algorithm:
1. Start the time of day timer either from Workbook_Open() or manually through a command button.
2. 'Click' on a command button for Exam 1. Associated with Exam 1 is an Exam duration (source unknown). Save the date and time when the command button was clicked.
3. Repeat step 2 for all other exams whenever they start.
4. In the timer event handler code, you perform the calculations and display the elapsed time and time remaining for each Exam as required.

The file from Post number 2 in the following link takes a similar approach to a different problem.
http://www.excelforum.com/excel-prog...ain-value.html

I'm very busy the next couple of days, but if you still need help on Friday, I can probably come up with a solution by Friday afternoon.

Lewis

Hi Lewis,

Thanks for answering this.

The exam duration is automatically brought into the front sheet as a Vlookup from an examination details sheet with the entry generated by the subject/paper chosen from a drop down list on the front page.

The exam invigilator would then press the start button for that exam when it commences. There may be a number or exams starting at the same time, but for different durations, however this is not a problem as the current set up allows the user to select up to 5 different subjects/papers and the durations for each are individually generated.

My problem is if the invigilator then want to start another subject/paper at a later time ie when the first exam(s) have already started. As it currently stands, this is the concept I am having trouble with. Whilst I think this may be what you have solved in your reply, sorry but I don't grasp what it is you are suggesting I do to resolve it. Sorry to be slow on the uptake, but I think my brain is getting tired and becoming "reptilian" in functionality ie seriously lacking!

Thanks again for your time and trouble in replying.

Kind regards
John

You are a legend! This is fantastic. Thanks so much for your help with this. I will be sure to credit you to my exams officer when I show her. I also like your suggestion for the color coding, I assume I can do this using conditional formatting on the cells?

Thanks again for your help

Kind regards
John

I'm glad it worked out for you.

You can probably do the color coding with 'Conditional Formatting'. If 'Conditional Formatting' doesn't work, let me know and I'll solve the problem with some VBA code.

Lewis