formatting in different countries

[Libby]

I've recently created a spreadsheet which contains a date formatted to show
as the day of the week by means of "dddd".
However this spreadsheet is to be used in Germany and France and I've
discovered that in order for the formatting to work, "dddd" has to be
replaced with "tttt" in Germany (for Tag) and "jjjj" in France (jour).

I'm quite surprised by this as I though that the formatting would have been
taken care of in Excel regardless of the country it was being opened.

Is this a problem anyone else has encountered and how did you get around it?

Libby

 

[JP]

I might be mistaken, but wouldn't the regional settings translate that
appropriately?

Does this help?
http://www.oaltd.co.uk/ExcelProgRef/Ch22/


--JP

 

[Libby]

You'd have thought so, but apparently not. A spreadsheet with a date
formatted with a formula as text to "dddd" displays "dddd" in Germany unless
the dddd in the formula is changed to tttt.

 

[Bob Phillips]

Libby,

The way I do it is as follows:

- first, create a cell with my preferred date format, let's say Z1 on sheet
Control (it can be a hidden sheet)
- add a defined name (Insert>Name>Define...) of say myDateFormat, and a
RefersTo value of =GET.CELL(7,Control!$Z$1)

and then in your spreadsheet use =TEXT(NOW(),myDateFormat)

To be really flexible, you could create a number of cells with different
formats, all with different defined names, and use appropriately.

--
HTH

Bob

(there's no email, no snail mail, but somewhere should be gmail in my addy)

 

[Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)]

I posted a version of this in your previous thread dealing with this
question (but I'm guessing you haven't checked back there yet)...

Try this variation (the "aaaa" returns the day name with the localized
spelling for the computer it is being run on)...

=TEXT(<<YourDate>>,"aaaa")

Also, instead of "aaaa", you can use "aaa" for the localized abbreviated day
name. You can also use these patterns when Custom Formatting a Cell.

Rick

 

[Rick Rothstein \(MVP - VB\)]

Just to follow up on this issue... Harlan Grove has raised a question about
how this would work in French Excel since that version uses "a" for its year
patterns. Any French Excel users out there who can test it out for us?

Rick