The date format - yyyy mmm dd (month being letters) is the most common and
most useable format for people using the date as a sort and/or search method,
particular in genealogy. I'm tired of having to see the date in the opposite
direction I want it. I want to see the year first, then the Month in a 3
letter abbreviation,then the days. An acceptable compromise would be yyyy mm
dd - then punctuation would be necessary to make the numerals more readable.
Thank you.

----------------
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"I don't know but probably Lorraine O'Del" <I don't know but probably
Lorraine wrote in message
...
The date format - yyyy mmm dd (month being letters) is the most common and
most useable format for people using the date as a sort and/or search
method,
particular in genealogy. I'm tired of having to see the date in the
opposite
direction I want it. I want to see the year first, then the Month in a 3
letter abbreviation,then the days. An acceptable compromise would be yyyy
mm
dd - then punctuation would be necessary to make the numerals more
readable.
Thank you.

If you see this as you're using the wb interface:

Excel can already do this - use Format Cells-Custom and add "yyyy mmmm dd"
(without the quotes"

Yes but with genealogy you open up another can of worms because they
would be text dates instead of Excel dates. John Walkenbach has
Extended Date subroutines because VBA handles dates better than Excel
so you can have a date before 1900 and then you have calendar changes
occurring at different dates around the world.
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/datetime.htm

and
Extended Date Functions
http://www.j-walk.com/ss/excel/files/xdate.htm
---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"I don't know but probably Lorraine O'Del" <I don't know but probably Lorraine wrote in message
...
The date format - yyyy mmm dd (month being letters) is the most common and
most useable format for people using the date as a sort and/or search method,
particular in genealogy. I'm tired of having to see the date in the opposite
direction I want it. I want to see the year first, then the Month in a 3
letter abbreviation,then the days. An acceptable compromise would be yyyy mm
dd - then punctuation would be necessary to make the numerals more readable.
Thank you.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.


http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...et.f unctions

"David McRitchie" wrote in message
...
Yes but with genealogy you open up another can of worms because they
would be text dates instead of Excel dates.

If you set up a custom format of "yyyy mmmm dd" then it looks to me as if it
IS an Excel date: ie if you type in "09/07/05" being today's date, it
displays it as 2005 July 09 but if you then format the cell as general, it
shows the Excel date number of 38542 .

Try inputing a date of
A1: 1845-12-31 b1: =isnumber(a1) c1: =a1+730 d1: =isnumber(c1)

You may notice that A1 is left just justified like text because it is text
because it can't be an Excel date; that B1 shows A1 to be text and
not a number you can test for text with =istext(a1) Cell C1 will show #VALUE!
error.

A1: 1965-12-31 b1: =isnumber(a1) c1: =a1+730 d1: =isnumber(c1)
The number tests will show True, you will have to format C1 as a date
easily done witht the format painter. Your regional short date must be
set to yyyy-mm-dd and it may or may not take effect immediately,
some things require a reboot -- don't thing this does.

http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/datetime.htm

If you regional date format is mm/dd/yyyy you can test
with 12/31/1845 instead and not mess with your regioal dates
you will get the same results except for the date format.

---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"Gordon" wrote in message ...
"David McRitchie" wrote in message
...
Yes but with genealogy you open up another can of worms because they
would be text dates instead of Excel dates.

If you set up a custom format of "yyyy mmmm dd" then it looks to me as if it
IS an Excel date: ie if you type in "09/07/05" being today's date, it
displays it as 2005 July 09 but if you then format the cell as general, it
shows the Excel date number of 38542 .