Help setting default date format in LibreOffice Writer

BigVig · 05-02-2020, 09:10 AM

I am using LibreOffice Writer-Version: 6.4.3.2 (x64), Locale: en-US (en_US); UI-Language: en-US.

And despite searching on my best friend google, and the not so friendly manual on the Libreoffice website, I cannot find a decent explanation of how to change the date format for when you insert the date in Writer.

Most howtos simply say, you change the format in the locale settings, be careful it changes it for all of libreoffice. That's great, but it does not help me at all.

I want to change the default insert date format from MM/DD/YY to MMMM D, YYYY.

Could someone help me to do that using small words?

Thank you very much in advance.

shruggy · 05-02-2020, 11:14 AM

The howtos are right: LibreOffice honors your locale settings. See bug 46448.

Besides,

1) You can change the date template under Tools>Options>Language Settings>Languages>Date acceptance patterns

2) You can change the format of an already inserted field, either form right-click context menu, of from Edit>Fields...

BigVig · 05-02-2020, 04:33 PM

"You can change the date template under Tools>Options>Language Settings>Languages>Date acceptance patterns"

When you open that dialog box, if you change the date format in the date acceptance patterns box, it turns red and does not save the format when you click close.

Could you point me towards how to change the date acceptance patterns?

The whole point is when you use the keyboard to insert a date field, it defeats the purpose to then have to click on the field to reformat the date.

Thank you for answering.

scasey · 05-02-2020, 04:57 PM

As I read it, that setting is for validating dates, not for formatting them.

Quote:

Date acceptance patterns
Specifies the date acceptance patterns for the current locale. Calc spreadsheet and Writer table cell input needs to match locale dependent date acceptance patterns before it is recognized as a valid date. Default locale dependent date acceptance patterns are generated build time, but it is possible to add more or modify them in this edit box.
Additionally to the date acceptance patterns defined here, every locale accepts input in an ISO 8601 Y-M-D pattern, and since LibreOffice 3.5 that also leads to the YYYY-MM-DD format being applied.
Syntax: Y means year, M means month, and D means day, regardless of localizaton.

Setting the format with a right click is the only way to control the format, AFAIK.
Note that if you're working with a column of cells, You can set the format for the entire column.
You can also multi-select cells and set the format for all of them.

I've been managing date and other formats this way for years.