International Date Formats in Excel

[Brendan_O_Rourke]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

In Excel all dates are being displayed in US format (mm/dd/yyyy) when I want to display them in International (UK) Format (dd/mm/yyyy). I have verified that my systems date setting are international and restarted Excel but they are still displayed in US format.

Does anyone have any ideas? I will do a complete re-install later today to see if that makes a difference and post an update when I have done it. Any other ideas in the meantime?

 

[Brendan_O_Rourke]

OK. I tried this again. This time I didn't format the cell as DATE but I typed the date in and it recognised it and automatically formatted the cell as DATE and showed the date in International Format.

If I format a cell as Date then enter a date it shows in US format. When I go to Format Cell Date - all the examples are in US format not International format and this is how the cell is displayed.

So the way it can work is to type the date and let Excel recognise it. If I format the cells as DATE first or use the Cell Format menu command it seems to revert to US dates. Is this a bug?

 

[Brendan_O_Rourke]

Some additional information. I can access the International Date formats in the Custom Formats in the Format Cell menu command.

 

[Garry Rowberry]

Can we please have an official answer the the problem? Is there a setting or menu option we can set or is it a bug or a MAC feature.

This is driving me up the wall.

Like above, if I enter a date into a cell Excel formats the date as entered (UK), if I change the formatting of the date... Excel reverts to US date format.

This is clearly not acceptable for an international product

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Like above, if I enter a date into a cell Excel formats the date as
entered (UK), if I change the formatting of the date... Excel reverts to
US date format.

For me, as long as I made sure that all date formats were set as
dd/mm/yyyy in the System Preferences, it wirked just fine in Excel. You
have to make sure you correct it for short, medium and long data
formats... not just for the one displayed when you opened the prefpane.
As far as I know, Excel simply follows the System Preferences for the
dates,

Corentin

 

[Brendan_O_Rourke]

I have pulled some screen shots showing the setting in System Settings (International); what happens when I put a date in Excel, what the cell format settings are for date and what they are for custom - I am still suffering from this problem.

<http://gallery.me.com/brendanorourke#100163>

As you can see from the pictures - my date are correct format in System Settings but in Excel it defaults to US format in the cell format dialogue.

One thing is that I used Monlingual to reduce the size of the app so I am going to re-install completely and see if that makes a difference.

Brendan

 

[Skerla]

This worked for me:

Changed International - Formats - Region to my current location - Serbia and Montenegro.

Got a warning that this region is incompatible with some older applications. I am using Excel 2008

Restarted Excel, did format cell - Date - it offered 3/14/01 what is mm/d/yy format

Taped, in unformatted cell, date in format 22/01/2009 and he formatted cell as Custom d/mm/yy

Copied that formatting with format painter to other date cells

Think this is a bug. Excel does not cooperate well with International settings in System Preferences

 

[Brendan_O_Rourke]

I completely re-installed office and it all seems to be working fine now. Maybe it was an issue with monolingual that took away some files that were required for this to work.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Maybe it was an issue with monolingual that took away some files that were
required for this to work.

That is very likely the case - monolingual has been identified in a
number of other problems with Office apps.

Most of us don't run systems so lean that the few gigabytes of HD space
saved by monolingual make any material difference at all.

For the rest, if you have a choice, choosing not to install the
languages in the first place is far safer.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

I completely re-installed office and it all seems to be working fine
now. Maybe it was an issue with monolingual that took away some files
that were required for this to work.

Monolingual does a LOT of damage....
I stay away from this type of apps,


Corentin