PlanMaker MILLISECONDS Function: Syntax and Verified Time Examples
Extract 0–999 millisecond component in PlanMaker and understand Excel export formula-loss warnings, precision and locale testing.
Verification status: Official documentation referenced; example outcomes independently reasoned or arithmetically checked where stated. Not executed in SoftMaker PlanMaker 2026. How formula examples are checked
Quick answer: SoftMaker explicitly documents =MILLISECONDS("12:34:56.555") returning 555. MILLISECONDS(Time) extracts the millisecond component of a time value. This is PlanMaker-specific: Microsoft Excel does not have this function, and saving in Excel format replaces these formulas with fixed results.
Verification: Official documentation and independently calculated examples were checked. No native PlanMaker or Excel execution was performed; expected results are not observed software outputs.
Purpose and when to use it
Use MILLISECONDS when reviewing subsecond timestamps from a laboratory instrument, transaction log, or timing dataset, or when checking whether a value has been rounded to a whole second. This is not the number of milliseconds elapsed since midnight or between records. When exchanging instrument measurements, retain original timestamps and precision metadata rather than assuming a display format guarantees stored precision.
Official syntax, argument type, argument order and defaults
=MILLISECONDS(Time)
| Argument | Required | Meaning in SoftMaker’s English reference | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
Time |
Yes | A time value, such as a genuine date/time-valued cell or an accepted time expression; vendor examples include quoted time/date-time literals. | None; no optional argument is documented. |
There is exactly one argument, so no argument-order ambiguity and no optional arguments or defaults. A cell reference such as A3 is not quoted; a text literal such as "12:34:56 AM" is quoted. The latter requires locale-aware parsing. This function does not accept separate hour, minute and second parameters—that is what the constructor TIME(Hour,Minute,Second) is for. The English manual uses comma-separated arguments for TIME; an installation may use a different formula-list separator depending on its settings. Official function page; TIME constructor.
Reproducible worksheet and vendor-reported examples
SoftMaker documents these three independent examples: MILLISECONDS("12:34:56.555")→555, MILLISECONDS("09/25/2018 12:34:56.555")→555, and MILLISECONDS(A1)→555 when A1 holds a date with a .555 second fraction. Those are documented results, not independently observed application outputs.
For a numeric, locale-resistant worksheet, enter =TIME(12,34,56)+555/86400000 in A2, =TIME(10,5,9)+7/86400000 in A3, =TIME(18,30,0)+999/86400000 in A4, and =TIME(6,45,12) in A5. The 86,400,000 denominator means milliseconds per day. In B2 use =MILLISECONDS(A2) and fill to B5. Independently expected millisecond components are 555, 7, 999, 0. However, subsecond values are represented as floating-point fractions: whether PlanMaker returns these exact integers from arithmetic-generated serials requires native precision testing. To inspect the original number rather than a rounded whole-second display, select a fractional-second number format appropriate for your locale; SoftMaker documents format tokens for subsecond display.
A separate control is =MILLISECONDS("12:34:56.555"); it is a vendor-published example, but typed text parsing may depend on the locale’s fractional-second decimal marker.
Advanced scenarios
Advanced: split the displayed seconds field into seconds and milliseconds
For a time containing 12:34:56.555, the intended seconds-plus-fraction value is 56.555. Given a genuine time-valued cell A2, =SECOND(A2)+MILLISECONDS(A2)/1000 has the independently expected value 56.555. This helps explain a time component, but it is not a complete time-of-day or elapsed-duration calculation. The underlying PlanMaker execution, rounding behavior at extreme values and timezone handling were not tested.
Advanced: total elapsed milliseconds
If D2 and E2 contain numeric timestamps within a consistent date/time system, (E2-D2)*86400000 mathematically converts the whole duration to milliseconds. For times constructed as TIME(10,0,0) and TIME(10,0,1)+250/86400000, the expected duration is 1,250 milliseconds; using =ROUND((E2-D2)*86400000,0) is a deliberate rounding policy to produce that integral count. By contrast, MILLISECONDS(E2) is a 250-millisecond component, not the total duration. Handle midnight by including actual dates, and validate real instrument precision before treating calculations as metrological measurements.
Excel compatibility warning: dynamic formulas become fixed values
SoftMaker’s 2021, 2024 and 2026 documentation explicitly says that MILLISECONDS is not supported by Microsoft Excel, and that on saving a workbook to an Excel format, calculations using it are replaced by their current result as a fixed value. This can silently break future recalculation when source timestamps change. For a workbook that must remain dynamic in Excel, design a separate tested Excel-compatible calculation based on numeric time differences and rounding, then test it against actual data before export. Do not claim that an Excel workbook contains a working MILLISECONDS function after export. A static result is not an equivalent formula. SoftMaker compatibility statement.
Errors, limits and troubleshooting
| Symptom or risk | What to check |
|---|---|
| MILLISECONDS looks like 0 for a time printed to seconds | The cell may simply be formatted with hh:mm:ss; display enough fractional digits. |
A .555 literal gives an unexpected result |
Check whether your locale uses a comma as the fractional-second decimal separator and whether the input was parsed as time or text. |
| Arithmetic-created 999 ms rounds unexpectedly | Floating-point precision, number-format rounding and function boundary policy are separate; confirm in native PlanMaker. |
| Excel workbook stops recalculating this result | Expected export limitation: the function formula is replaced with a fixed result. Preserve a PlanMaker master and verify an Excel-compatible substitute separately. |
| Total elapsed milliseconds is confused with milliseconds field | MILLISECONDS is only the component; compute the full timestamp difference × 86,400,000 instead. |
| Text, blanks, negative times or extreme serial values | Exact error messages, clipping/truncation and precision limits are not described by this short reference and were not executed. |
Important uncertainty: The brief function page does not supply a complete matrix of conversion/overflow/error-code rules. No #VALUE!, #NUM!, precision threshold or input coercion is promised without application execution. Regional parsing, saved file formats and the numeric time’s stored precision deserve manual testing.
PlanMaker versions, editions and Excel compatibility
SoftMaker documents this function in PlanMaker 2021, 2024 and 2026 English manuals, with the same single-argument syntax. It is not an Excel function. Its Excel-export transformation is documented in all three versions. This does not prove identical runtime edge behavior on Windows, Mac and Linux, or preservation of submillisecond precision from every imported file. Test export and reimport with a copy of the workbook rather than assuming a formatted timestamp is a lossless measurement.
Official references, checks and related topics
Official reference pages checked 2026-10-12 (UTC): PlanMaker 2026 MILLISECONDS, PlanMaker 2024 MILLISECONDS, and PlanMaker 2021 MILLISECONDS. The syntax printed on these three English manuals agrees. These are documentation checks, not proof that every installation and edition executes identical edge cases. More information: TIME constructor; regional cell entry; custom number formats. Excel has no native MILLISECONDS function per SoftMaker; test fixed-value export effects before relying on workbook interchange.
For adjacent components, refer to the official HOUR, MINUTE, SECOND and MILLISECONDS pages.
Verification summary: Official documentation and independent arithmetic were checked. Native PlanMaker and Excel execution, platform/edition behavior and workbook exchange remain untested.