Amercan to British Date

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That's Confidential

Me again!

I am entering dates in one of my columns, however Excel doesn't seem to
recognise them unless I enter them in the American format and not the
British

ie:

America 02/22/2004
British 22/02/2004

Could anybody please tell me how I could change this so that it recognises
the British format? I am using MS Office 2000

Thanks again
 
Date formats are at the Windows level. You can set them in the Control
Panel.

--

Kind Regards,

Niek Otten

Microsoft MVP - Excel
 
Hi!

Without changing the Regional Settings you could use date entry
formats recognised unequivocally by all English Language (FAOD inc
USA). These forms of entry are:

12 January 2002
12-January-2002
12/January/2002
12 Jan 2002
12-Jan-2002
12/Jan/2002
2002-01-12
2002/01/12
2002/1/12

Methods 3,4 and 5 are the most commonly selected. They are quick to
type and take up the least width of cell.

Method 7 is ISO8601:2000 approved (separated) form and has the even
greater advantage that it does not "demand" an English language date.
I believe it is a form that is recognized by all Regional settings but
I haven't checked that out for all countries and all Excel Versions
(OK for Versions down to Excel 97). For other forms the short or long
month names need translating to the appropriate language. Methods 8
and 9 are non-compliant ISO ordered and I would ask, "Why use these
when the real McCoy is available?"

You might note that all use 4 digit years and thus protect against
change of the double digit year interpretation setting. If you use
double digit years you risk major error if some darn fool changes your
double digit year interpretation setting or if your application is
used on another computer with different settings
--
Regards
Norman Harker MVP (Excel)
Sydney, Australia
(e-mail address removed)
Excel and Word Function Lists (Classifications, Syntax and Arguments)
available free to good homes.
 
Thanks a lot for your replies! Appreciate it!

Norman Harker said:
Hi!

Without changing the Regional Settings you could use date entry
formats recognised unequivocally by all English Language (FAOD inc
USA). These forms of entry are:

12 January 2002
12-January-2002
12/January/2002
12 Jan 2002
12-Jan-2002
12/Jan/2002
2002-01-12
2002/01/12
2002/1/12

Methods 3,4 and 5 are the most commonly selected. They are quick to
type and take up the least width of cell.

Method 7 is ISO8601:2000 approved (separated) form and has the even
greater advantage that it does not "demand" an English language date.
I believe it is a form that is recognized by all Regional settings but
I haven't checked that out for all countries and all Excel Versions
(OK for Versions down to Excel 97). For other forms the short or long
month names need translating to the appropriate language. Methods 8
and 9 are non-compliant ISO ordered and I would ask, "Why use these
when the real McCoy is available?"

You might note that all use 4 digit years and thus protect against
change of the double digit year interpretation setting. If you use
double digit years you risk major error if some darn fool changes your
double digit year interpretation setting or if your application is
used on another computer with different settings
--
Regards
Norman Harker MVP (Excel)
Sydney, Australia
(e-mail address removed)
Excel and Word Function Lists (Classifications, Syntax and Arguments)
available free to good homes.
Click to expand...
 
That's Confidential said:
Me again!

I am entering dates in one of my columns, however Excel doesn't seem to
recognise them unless I enter them in the American format and not the
British

ie:

America 02/22/2004
British 22/02/2004

Could anybody please tell me how I could change this so that it recognises
the British format? I am using MS Office 2000
Click to expand...

Depends on system locale. It will look different on different computers in
different places.
 
This has always been a pet peeve...arrgh, why can't the entire world just
use year-month-day and avoid ANY confusion ?

arrgh,,OK, I've vented, thanks back to upgrading my Visicalc sheets into
Excel97 sheets....oh what joy...


Jay
 
Hi Jay!

Agreed! In fact almost the entire World has agreed to this in
ISO8601:2000

But agreement and implementation are different things. Same goes for
public opinion that I'm sure would be against a change of existing
habits.

--
Regards
Norman Harker MVP (Excel)
Sydney, Australia
(e-mail address removed)
Excel and Word Function Lists (Classifications, Syntax and Arguments)
available free to good homes.
 
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