MS Office 2011 Date & Time format

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I have very strange problem with MS Word 2011 ver. 14.1.3
Date/Time format is completely strange and out of sync with OS X Lion. In system preferences / Language and Text / Format -> Region selected is US.

Here is screen shot from Word / Insert / Date & Time
ScreenShot2011-09-21at100106PM.png


May be someone have idea how this issue can be solved/fixed?
 
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Date Problem with Office

I am having the same problem. I just upgraded to 2011. The problem started with 2008. It may have been a result of the switch to Lion; I can't remember if there was a correlation. I have been unable to figure out how to reset the date format in Word. The date and time format in Lion in the System Preferences is correct, i.e., it shows the entire year.

Help appreciated.
 

chscag

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Nothing strange, it's normal. In order to see the date - formats in Lion, open "Language & Text", and click on the Format tab. The date format is not found in "Date & Time". That's only used for setting the date - time for your machine according to your time zone locale.
 
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Date Problem with Office

Thanks, chscag, but the problem in Word persists.

I HAD verified the date format in Lion's Language & Text System Preference, thinking that's where the problem originated. However, while today's date in System Preferences reads "September 22, 2011", in the corresponding MS Word 2011 Date and Time window (shown in bigjoshua's original post), it still reads "September 22, 11". When using autotext to complete the date, Word has been dropping 20 from the year. In my case, it was going on before upgrading to Office 2011. I think it MAY have started when I upgraded to Lion, but I can't remember.

Thanks again for trying.
 
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Thanks for clarifying that - I missed it the first time as well. Mine's doing the same thing. I'll forward a request to our MS tech manager and see if we can get some guidance on it. I'll let you know if I find out anything.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2586538
 

chscag

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I HAD verified the date format in Lion's Language & Text System Preference, thinking that's where the problem originated. However, while today's date in System Preferences reads "September 22, 2011", in the corresponding MS Word 2011 Date and Time window (shown in bigjoshua's original post), it still reads "September 22, 11". When using autotext to complete the date, Word has been dropping 20 from the year. In my case, it was going on before upgrading to Office 2011. I think it MAY have started when I upgraded to Lion, but I can't remember.

Word is not dropping anything. It's the choice that Word gives when you select that particular format. It's plain and clear in the Word date and time dialog that it prints the date as "September 22, 11".

Now if you say that MS neglected to offer the date format of "September 22, 2011" you would be correct. And it appears MS Office is not using the date formats from System Preferences.

But, I agree with you about the format. They certainly should include that format since it's one of the more popular ways (at least in the US) to display the date. I'll report the omission to the MS Office forum on their server where perhaps one of the MS MVPs can comment or explain.
 
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Date Problem with Office

Thanks, chscag. Please tell the MS MVP that I did not "select" that format. It just started happening one day when I was writing a letter with the date at the top and expected the normal "2011" to be added with the date after typing the month. I had not made any changes in my options, preferences, customizations, etc. I was using MS Word 2008 for Mac at the time. It has continued to be a problem since upgrading.
 

chscag

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The latest: According to MS, it will be addressed in a future service pack or update; whatever that means... Also promised are versions and save versions for Lion compatibility.

As a note, I just downloaded and installed an update for Office 2011 today but it appears to only be a small security patch, nothing major.
 
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Our Technical Accounts Manager at MS said the same thing... there are a bunch of documents referencing the issue, but no ETA on a solution. I told him we needed a solution in 30 days. We'll see how well that flies. :)
 
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Still no update to this over 3 months later. It doesn't follow system preferences and seems only to be a Lion issue since it works fine for me on Snow Leopard and follows Macs default settings.
 

chscag

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Why they didn't address it in the latest service pack (4) is beyond me. They still haven't fixed the "save" and versions for Lion either.
 
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Workaround using Autocorrect

My workaround:

In autocorrect, replace ", 12y" with ", 2012".

If MS completes to "January 12, 12" I just add "y " and the autocorrect takes care.

Not great, not terrible. Just MS at work, 'ya know
 
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Solved: date format for Office 2008

1. On your Mac, go to System Preferences; Language & Text [NOTE: **Mac** system prefs, NOT Word/Office prefs!]

2. Even if everything looks correct (ie, full, 4-digit year), under "Dates", click "Customize" and RE-set the "Medium", "Long", and "Full" date formats to the 4-digit year (eg, "2013") using the drop-down selection menu. Make sure the "Year" element (below the formats) shows all 4 digits (this doesn't seem to be changeable, but mine shows all 4 digits: "2013").

3. Click "OK"

4. Office now uses the 4-digit year when you "insert date".


Worked for me, using Lion (OS X 10.7.5) and Office:Mac 2008. I also had this problem appear out of the blue (red?) after upgrading from Snow Leopard (10.6.x) to Lion (10.7.x). Not sure if this will work for Office 2011 or Mountain Lion (10.8), but give it a try.

iMac (late 2006); OS X 10.7.5; Office:Mac 2008
 
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My MBP mid 2010 running ML was doing this as well. Really bugged me. Nice fix. It is working right now. Thanks.
 
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Problem still exists under 10.9.2 (OS-X Mavericks) and the solution found by macintush doesn't apply to the new date & time preference settings.
Clearly M$ has zero interest in supporting older software - they want us to buy a whole new installation of Office.
 
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OK, here's a work-around for Mavericks (and probably other OS-X flavors as well):
1. In the "Language & Region" preferences, click Advanced... and select Dates.
2. Click on each year "element" and hit delete to remove the year entirely from each date format.
3. Type in "2014", rather than dragging up a year "element" from the selections below.

You're now good until 2015 rolls around. An annual tweak is still annoying, but it's not a huge P.I.T.A. Just remember that everything on the Mac, not just MS Word, will be hosed come January 1 if you don't tweak the preferences. I've put an annual reminder in my calendar.

What's weird is that (a) it worked fine for a long time, under Lion, Mt. Lion, and, until very recently, under Mavericks, and (b) it still works fine on my MacBook, which is pretty much the same system and software across the board. Something happens to trigger the issue, and we need to figure out how to undo whatever the heck it is that happens.
 

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