formatting of date

[Libby]

Hello,

I have on a spreadsheet a column for dates. The dates are entered in the
format dd/mmm/yyyy and then the cell formatting changes them to mmm-yy.

This works fine for all UK users, but it all goes pear shaped when people
abroad add dates. In this case the format of the cell is overridden with
another format and foreign spelling.
For example, if I entered 12/oct/2008 in the UK, the cell would display
Oct-08. However when a Dutch person does it for the same date 12-Okt-2008 is
displayed.

Not only is the formatting wrong, but the word Okt instead of Oct is
present. I have a macro which used the "Oct" part to count the number of
entries per month and this issue is messing it up.

Is there any way to force the dates into UK format?

Thanks in advance

 

[Fred Smith]

The first thing to remember is that the formatting of a cell does not affect
its contents. The contents stay the same regardless of the formatting.

Your basic problem is that the Dutch entry is not being recognized as a
date. It is therefore being treated as text. It's got nothing to do with the
format.

I suspect the easiest thing you can do is to use month numbers rather than
month names. For example, enter 12/10/2008 rather than 12/Oct/2008. And in
your macro, look for month 10 rather than month Oct.

But the bottom line is, make sure your entries are being recognized as a
date, not as text. The easiest way to determine the difference is that dates
can be reformatted, text cannot.

Regards,
Fred.

 

[Bernard Liengme]

I have only the US vision of Excel so I cannot check this but I know you can
use a county code in a custom format See
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA010346351033.aspx
best wishes

 

[Bernard Liengme]

I have experimented.

In A1, a date 1/10/2008 was entered. I am Canadian so this is 1-Oct-2008
If I format is as dd-mmm-yy I see 1-Oct-2008

From the URL I sent you, I learnt that Germany's code is 407
If I format A1 with [$-407] dd-mmm-yy, then I se 1-Okt-08

The English(UK) code is 809 so if I use [$-809] dd-mmm-yy I see 1-Oct-08
My bet is that if I sent this to a Norwegian user she would see 1-Oct-08

Please try it and let us know the result

 

[Libby]

Hi Bernard and Fred,

Thank you both for the replies.

Things are complicated slightly because the dates are added via a userform
and a macro.
The user enters the date on the form in the format dd/mm/yy and the form
then changes this to dd/mmm/yyyy. I had to do this because without it there
were instances where 01/06/08 would be interpreted as the 6th of January
instead of the 1st of June.

Neverthelesss, I shall certainly have a go at it and post the result.

I have experimented.

In A1, a date 1/10/2008 was entered. I am Canadian so this is 1-Oct-2008
If I format is as dd-mmm-yy I see 1-Oct-2008

From the URL I sent you, I learnt that Germany's code is 407
If I format A1 with [$-407] dd-mmm-yy, then I se 1-Okt-08

The English(UK) code is 809 so if I use [$-809] dd-mmm-yy I see 1-Oct-08
My bet is that if I sent this to a Norwegian user she would see 1-Oct-08

Please try it and let us know the result
--
Bernard V Liengme
Microsoft Excel MVP
http://people.stfx.ca/bliengme
remove caps from email

Hello,

I have on a spreadsheet a column for dates. The dates are entered in the
format dd/mmm/yyyy and then the cell formatting changes them to mmm-yy.

This works fine for all UK users, but it all goes pear shaped when people
abroad add dates. In this case the format of the cell is overridden with
another format and foreign spelling.
For example, if I entered 12/oct/2008 in the UK, the cell would display
Oct-08. However when a Dutch person does it for the same date 12-Okt-2008
is
displayed.

Not only is the formatting wrong, but the word Okt instead of Oct is
present. I have a macro which used the "Oct" part to count the number of
entries per month and this issue is messing it up.

Is there any way to force the dates into UK format?

Thanks in advance