Forum Discussion

Christos Savva's avatar
Christos Savva
Copper Contributor
Nov 16, 2017

Changing default dates on Excel for Mac

Hi,

 

I have a very annoying issue with Excel for Mac with the date formatting being unable to be switched to dd/mm/yyyy. I run Excel 16.8 on macOS 10.13.1.

 

The current default date format is the American one mm/dd/yyyy but I need the rest-of-the-world dd/mm/yyyy. In the Language & Region section I have set English UK and Greek, in that order, with the advanced options set to dd/mm/yyyy and restarted the computer with no avail.

 

Anyone else having this issue?

Excel on Mac
office 365

7 Replies

  • SeS's avatar
    SeS
    Copper Contributor
    Nov 16, 2024

    It seems that Microsoft/Office solely uses the AppleLocale to configure the default behavior and does not consider any individually configured formats defined in your Mac's system preferences.

    This fix worked for me:

    Open terminal and check your current AppleLocale by:

    defaults read NSGlobalDomain AppleLocale

    Set a locale that uses your desired formats (in my case de_DE):

    defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleLocale de_DE

    After restarting Excel, dates appear as expected.

  • AntoineDubai's avatar
    AntoineDubai
    Copper Contributor
    Nov 02, 2023

    Christos Savva 

    I am using  Excel 16.78.3 on a Mac fitted with Sonoma 14.1.
    I would like also to use the system day, month, year  when I type a date.
    When I type 1/2/23 it comes as January 2nd  and I need it to be February 1st. 
    I tried to go to System Setting >> General >> Language and Region and set the date format as dd/mm/yyyy but it did not change the way Excel behaves. 

    Did you find a solution to your issue.

    Thanks
    A

    • Barbara Hoffbrand (Mrs)'s avatar
      Barbara Hoffbrand (Mrs)
      Copper Contributor
      Nov 02, 2023

      AntoineDubai I am trying to use the UK date format instead of the US format on Windows but am still having to change it on my tables. I usually just highlight the whole column and change it that way. Every time I need to make the table bigger, I have to do the same thing.

       

      It seems to be a problem for everyone and needs Microsoft to change something which they are not doing.

       

      I hope you find a solution but think it unlikely as I have tried everything I know and know of others with the same problem.

      • AntoineDubai's avatar
        AntoineDubai
        Copper Contributor
        Nov 02, 2023

         

        Thanks Barbara for your message.

        Let's wait for Apple or Microsoft to find a solution.

        Best regards,

        A

  • Barbara Hoffbrand (Mrs)'s avatar
    Barbara Hoffbrand (Mrs)
    Copper Contributor
    Apr 11, 2018

    I do not have the US region on my computer at all but the dates keep going in the US format.  I have cleared all formats and put the correct format in a number of times and made sure that the region is UK, but to no avail!!

     

    I would love to know if there is a solution to this?

    • Thejas R's avatar
      Thejas R
      Copper Contributor
      Aug 30, 2018

      https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/308056/how-to-set-system-short-date-to-iso-format-yyyy-mm-dd-in-high-sierra

       

      This might help you resolve the issue. 

  • Will Tiernan's avatar
    Will Tiernan
    Copper Contributor
    Dec 02, 2017

    Hi

     

    I have a spreadsheet that I have been updating weekly for years...originally on a Windows laptop but I have been using it on my Mac laptop for a couple of years now.  Until this morning* I could use dd/mm/yyyy...and now I can't.  

     

    Regards

     

    Will

    * last 7 days anyway

    Office 365 Excel 16.8, Mac 10.13.1

Resources