Julian Dates

[steviegt]

Is there a way to show Julian dates in addition to the standard calendar
format? I looked in Vistas Regional Languages and there is nothing there to
select for this option.

--
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 32 bit
Internet Explorer v7
Office Home and Student 2007 SP1
Outlook 2007 Standalone

ESET Security Suite

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Out of curiosity; how is this useful to you?
To put it a bit crude; a Julian Date is nothing more than a "big"
mathematical number counting the days passed since January 1, 4713 BC
(Greenwich noon) with a decimal which is a reference to a specific time of
the day. Other than for specific researches I cannot really come up with a
reason to have it. And I cannot really think of one to have it in a generic
calendar application as a standard option.

Anyway, since you can calculate it by a static formula, you can add such
information by creating a macro which looks at which date/time you have
selected in your calendar and then does the calculation for you.

The same is true if you actually meant that you want to see the day number
of this year.

 

[steviegt]

Wow, I have my reasons. I only want the day number of the year. I will
look at creating a macro. But thanks for the history lesson.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

outlook doesn't show the day number but one of the alternate calendars
reportedly does (none I tried will - one does moon phases though). tools,
options, calendar options, show alternate calendar.

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[Responder]

All I can say is: Wow!
I use a Julian Date frequently on mainframe and server based applications.
I'm surprised at your comment.
Not only is a Julian Date add-in a great idea for Outlook Calendar, it
should have been there 5 years ago.
Numerous print calendars have this feature today.
I'm sure you don't need to know what day Australia Day is if you live in the
US, typically, but at least you have the 'option' of adding them in.
Just because YOU don't see the 'vision', doesn't mean someone isn't already
'living' it.

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Why do you need to turn this into something personal?
I think you failed to read my first sentence;

Out of curiosity; how is this useful to you?

So I already asked for more information about it from the OP.

I then gave my personal opinion on its technical relevance in conjunction to
Outlook. It's ok if you don't agree with me on that part but motivate
yourself instead of just dismissing my opinion and even attack me on it. I
didn't dismiss the OP's request either; since the OP didn't posted enough
information, I had to make an assumption as to why it would be relevant to
have it. The OP was free to respond on that and could give another reason to
have it other than my assumptions. That of course can change my opinion. I
didn't dismiss his/her opinion either; he/she didn't post any. My responds
was purely technical of nature and even provided technical workarounds to
still get it.

Since you like to have Julian Dates in Outlook as well, I'm sure you can
then explain it to me what the greater importance of it is. It might be a
great idea to have it natively in Outlook indeed but based on your responds,
I cannot tell so it would be hard to support the idea.

When making a suggestion, don't make it because you would need it but make
it because it will benefit the product or a whole lot more people and
motivate your suggestion. A general rule of thumb is that suggestions for
niche markets (do not confuse with small nations or populations) are usually
not incorporated into the general product. Depending on its implementation
method or need, Microsoft itself could provide an addin for that or it will
be left to the addin market. If you know how to write code, this could be an
opportunity for you.

For instance, this photography addin of Microsoft for Outlook is such a
thing that supports a niche market but isn't included in the general
product;
http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/downloads/prophotoshoot.aspx

 

[Gonzo]

Roady,

I'm afraid I have to with the responder about the Julian date calendar being
added 5 years ago. I am in the military, and we deal with the Julian
calendar (dates) on a daily basis. The airline industry uses the Julian
calendar as well. That is two major industries that use a MS product. Now,
are we demanding for MS to update their programming or else? No, we are just
requesting for options, and trying to figure out why it was not thought of in
the development process.

v/r

Gonzo

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I'm afraid I have to with the responder about the Julian date calendar
being
added 5 years ago. I am in the military, and we deal with the Julian
calendar (dates) on a daily basis. The airline industry uses the Julian
calendar as well.

A calendar that expresses a date as a numbered day of the year (ordinal day)
is not the "Julian" date. The Julian date representing February 17, 2009 is
2,454,880. I don't believe for an instant that an airline would use that
value. Now, considering how confusing the government likes to be, perhaps
the military might, but I doubt it.

 

[Flynoe]

The Julian Date is a useful tool in many applications. It is apparent that
the naivety of some would strike another as odd. However, if you don't see a
use for one thing or another does not constitute the usefulness for the
other. As a 20 Military Veteran and now a Federal Employee, Julian dates are
crucial for computations of many things. Since your curiosity bug is itching,
imagine a number stated as 10234. That number to you may not mean much, but
to a planner, logistician or manager, that number represents that in the year
2010 day 234 (August 22) something will happen. Julian dates can be used for
many reasons and if you weren’t savvy enough to figure out that 10234 =
August 22, 2010 you may be able to see the usefulness of Julian dates.

 

[C2]

Allow me to add my 2 cents to the "need" for julian dates. The MS Office
suite is the "official" office suite for the US Govt. As such it is the
required file format for many if not most of the official reports submitted
to the govt by the many contractors doing business with the govt. As a result
the MS Office suite has become the "official" office suite of most of the
govt contractors, both large and small. From the Boeing's to the mom & pop
small business contractors the MS Office suite is being used. The govt uses 4
digit julian dates (YXXX where Y is the last digit of the year and XXX is the
sequential day of the year since Jan 1), period. Because the govt uses julian
dates so do a very large number of govt contractors. The need for julian date
support with MS Outlook is not just a small group of Outlook users, it is a
VERY large section of users. A MUCH larger group than those that use many of
the extra features that are functional with Outlook. Please, support the
users with useful features that we need like julian dates. I know this
because I work for a large govt contractor on a US Marine Corp Air Station
and have been working with the military for the past 34 yrs.