Change Date Content Control to UK format

[Mary Ann]

I have inserted a Cover Page (Insert tab, Pages group) and used the Date
content control. It shows in the American format i.e. mm/dd/yyyy. How can I
change this to be the UK format?
Also, is it a date which automatically updates, or is static? If it
automatically updates, how do I change that setting?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The formatting of date fields in Word is generally dependent on your Windows
default settings for date format.

 

[Mary Ann]

Thanks for your reply Suzanne.

The Control Panel, Regional and Language options, are set to United Kingdom
and the date shows there in the format I want i.e. 19/09/2008. My automatic
date fields appear elsewhere in the UK format e.g. in Excel or when I use the
Insert, Date and Time in Word. It’s only these controls on the Cover Pages
that I’ve found use the US format.

Do you have any further thoughts?

 

[Cindy M.]

Hi Suzanne,

The formatting of date fields in Word is generally dependent on your Windows
default settings for date format.

Actually, no, it's dependent on the language formatting applied to the text in
which the date field stands.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Peter Jamieson]

I suggest you do this:
a. click the Developer tab. if you do not see it, check Office Button->Word
Options->Popular->Show Developer tab in the Ribbon
b. click Design Mode in the "Controls" group
c. Right-click the date control, click Properties, and set the format you
want.
d. click Design mode again

If you're going to be using this cover page a lot, it's probably worth
saving the modified version as a Quick Part, separate document or whatever.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

According to Cindy, you may need to change the language at the insertion
point to English (U.K.).

 

[Mary Ann]

Thanks Suzanne. I tried this – had to select the whole row to get the
language to change. But the date format remained unaltered. Am I doing
something wrong?

 

[Mary Ann]

Thank you for this. and your step by step instructions. I did get it to work
– but a bit long-winded unless you are saving the cover page as you suggest.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

– but a bit long-winded

I agree, but I think it's the only way to do it.