Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Running Calc 4.01 under Windows 7.

In Control Panel -> Region and Language I have
Format: English (South Africa)
Short date: dd/MM/yyyy
Long date: dd MMMM yyyy

In Calc, under Tools -> Options -> Language Settings -> Language I have
Locale setting: English (South Africa)

If I type 03/01/2014 in a cell it is handled as Text, not a Date.

If I use Format -> Cells -> Date (with Language set to English (South Africa)) then dd/MM/yyyy is not offered in the Format list. (It should be at the top, seeing as this is the Short Date format for the selected country.)

Basically, Calc is turning a blind eye on my Country settings and expects yyyy/MM/dd.

macnab wrote:... In Control Panel -> Region and Language I have ...

If you mean the Windows control panel, it's a known design issue: OO ignores all system settings except the actual locale. OO uses its own built-in settings based on the chosen locale, and the built-in settings cannot be changed.

This happens when the cell had been formatted as text before entry. otherwise 3/1 or any similar entry gives 3rd of April or 1st of March with US English locale.

South Africa, like Canada, use ISO date.
For 03/01/2014, you must type 14/01/03.

gerard24 wrote:South Africa, like Canada, use ISO date.
For 03/01/2014, you must type 14/01/03.

Ah, one more civilized nation under the sun. For any date in this year you don't have to type the year number. Whith South African locale any of the following enters today's date (15th of May 2014):
15/ (until end of this month)
15/5 (until end of this year)
may 15 (but not "15 may" which yields 1st of May 2015)
14 may 15
2014 may 15
14/5/15
14-5-15
14.5.15
The meaning of a 2-digit year entry depends on Tools>Settings>General: 2-digit year