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Forum Discussion
Cannot Change Excel online date format
Hi,
I live in Australia and I need to change the date format in Excel to the proper format. It currently displays as mm/dd/yyyy.
I've already checked the date format of my Dropbox account and it is already set to dd/mm/yyyy/
How do I get Excel online to honour the correct format.
Paul
@PAUL: You can change the Excel date display format but the Excel date input format is determined by the regional settings of the environment Excel is running in (Web/Windows/Mac/Mobile).
If you want to display date cells correctly you can use the date detection in this sheet:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4737890/RegionalSettings.xlsxand then use the formula "=TEXT([YourDateCellReference],C8)" to format date cells in Excel.
With English (Australian) settings on Windows the formula "=TEXT(38000,C8)" shows "14/02/2004".
The date format problem is one of the weaknesses of Excel. If you want to create internationalized worksheets that work in every country you have to detect the local regional settings and internationalize all formatting, input parsing and formula generating formulas.
Flynn, that does not answer Paul's question...that is an article on Microsoft Excel NOT Excel Online which is the issue that all Australian users are facing.
Format Cells is not an option in Excel Online as there is only limited functionality available. The only option around dates is Short Date or Long Date.
- DD1
Dropbox Staff
Hi Stephen! That's an issue we should probably bring forward with Excel's Support:
I tested a some cases, here is what I found out:
Dropbox Web Preferences -> Language: Direct effect on Excel Online date format
Dropbox Web Preferences -> Date format: No effect on Excel Online date format
Chrome (Browser) Preferences -> No effect on Excel Online date formatDropbox Display Language = German -> Excel date format = TT.MM.JJJJ (= DD.MM.YYYY)
Dropbox Display Language = Russian -> Excel date format = ДД.ММ.ГГГГ (= DD.MM.YYYY)
Dropbox Display Language = Chinese (Simpl.) -> Excel date format = YYYY/MM/DD
Dropbox Display Language = English (UK) -> Excel date format = MM/DD/YYYY
Dropbox Display Language = English (US) -> Excel date format = MM/DD/YYYYThis leads to the assumption that it is the Dropbox language setting that causes UK/AU/CA users to see wrong date formats. I also tested on SharePoint Online (Office 365) with the following results:
SharePoint Site Regional Setting = German -> Excel date format = TT.MM.JJJJ
SharePoint Site Regional Setting = Russian -> Excel date format = ДД.ММ.ГГГГ
SharePoint Site Regional Setting = Chinese (China) -> Excel date format = YYYY/MM/DD
SharePoint Site Regional Setting = English (UK) -> Excel date format = DD/MM/YYYY
SharePoint Site Regional Setting = English (US) -> Excel date format = MM/DD/YYYY
SharePoint Site Regional Setting = English (CA) -> Excel date format = YYYY/MM/DD
It seems that it is somehow possible to tell Excel Online the exact regional format.Here is the Excelsheet I used for testing: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4737890/RegionalSettings.xlsx
@PAUL: You can change the Excel date display format but the Excel date input format is determined by the regional settings of the environment Excel is running in (Web/Windows/Mac/Mobile).
If you want to display date cells correctly you can use the date detection in this sheet:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4737890/RegionalSettings.xlsxand then use the formula "=TEXT([YourDateCellReference],C8)" to format date cells in Excel.
With English (Australian) settings on Windows the formula "=TEXT(38000,C8)" shows "14/02/2004".
The date format problem is one of the weaknesses of Excel. If you want to create internationalized worksheets that work in every country you have to detect the local regional settings and internationalize all formatting, input parsing and formula generating formulas.
This shouldnt be so complicated. How is the average excel user supposed to be able to do this? Without the correct date format, this makes managing date related spreadsheets on dropbox cumbersome and essentially useless.
Will a simple resolution to this ever be achieved?
- DD1
Hi Paul! This appears to be more of an Excel issue than of a Dropbox issue.. but you can change the formatting of Excel files in the excel settings. Just found this online, maybe it helps. http://www.excel-easy.com/basics/format-cells.html
I thought so, is that something you can raise Flynn?
- DD1
Hey Stephen! I could, though it's probably easier to troubleshoot if someone writes in that is affected by the issue, so that you could send screenshots and such. What do you think?
Sure thing Flynn, I have raised the question in the Microsoft Community Forum. FYI, here is the link:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/officeonline-excel_online/excel-online-date-format-can-not-be-changed/5c543b14-d391-45e1-8137-f72e581b13ac?tm=1436235941067
