Since updating Libre office, the date format gets reversed on my existing spreadsheet and no amount of formatting cells corrects this - very frustrating
You are welcomed, but ...
Did you read any guide?
What is your question?
Where is your example file.
What is a reversed format?
What version of LibO are you using? What’s your OS?
What’s an amount of formatting?
Your steps or attempts?
If the sole purpose is just ranting, you should better not post.
1 Like
Hello
No need to be rude !!
It’s quite simple
I enter the date as 01-05-2026 and the software changes this to 26-05-01 (as an example)
This is on the Libre office spreadsheet since the latest update - I can’t see where i can find the version i am using
Windows 11 pro is the OS
I have been using libre office for a few years so I don’t need to read any “guides” - This is an existing spreadsheet that I use every day
Thank you
Robin Gerard
Open Menu: Help → About LibreOffice
Then there is exactly one expert for your problem to ask: @dyfedrob
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(We here can not see, what version your “latest” update may be, if you have automatic updates activated, your profile was reset, is corrupted or what is inside your file. So not much help possible.)
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As I don’t see any question, maybe you only seek pity for your frustration… Then it is ok to avoid mentioning details.
Ok thanks - screen shot attached - the far left column is the date column - the dates on there are the existing entries - I have corrected the last few which involves writing the date backwards
If you upload a file with several rows, we can provide a more accurate diagnosis.
Of course, please remove all confidential information.
select the Column in Question and:
⇒ Data ⇒ Text to Columns set no delimiters at all, but change the Column-type from Standard to Date (DMY)
2 Likes
I tried this but it keeps reverting back to “standard” once I try to input a date in the column, which results in the reversed date each time ?
Screen shot attached
Let’s do a workshop together.
Set the horizontal alignment in column A to “Standard” and increase the column width. This will immediately distinguish text (left-aligned) from numbers (including dates) (right-aligned).
In your downloaded file, cells A1:A13 are text, and cells A14:A23 are dates.
Describe which actions are causing you difficulty.
1 Like
tried your solution and all the numbers aligned to the right
I am selecting the WHOLE of column A and selecting the date format BUT it reverts back to displaying the date backwards with every new entry
this happens even with a brand new spreadsheet - this NEVER happened before the update
The goal of our workshop is to understand what’s going on.
Changing the column format affects the display of cell values ​​and does not affect how Calc determines whether you entered a number (including a date) or text.
Menu / Tools / Options / Languages and Locales/ General
Please share a copy of this screen.
Thank you!
So, Calc assumes (Date acceptance patterns) that you’ll enter dates in the following formats:
- D/M
- D-M
- D/M/Y
In your downloaded file, cell A24 is empty.
Let’s enter 25/05/2026 there.
What do you see?
When I do this experiment myself, I set the language of cell A24 (Format Cells / Numbers) to English(UK)
After entering the date, I see “25/05/26” because cell A24 is formatted as DD/MM/YY.
Or Ctrl+F8: text in black, numbers in blue.
Alignment could be misleading if direct format is applied.
Nope - just the same old thing - I input the date as 22-05-26 and the ignorant software changes it to 26-05-22
I’ve reversed the date for the cells on the spreadsheet as I’m just wasting precious time trying to sort out this glitch that has appeared since i updated the software
Thanks for your efforts !
Robin
You’re not a very attentive research participant. 
I asked you to enter 25/05/2026, you entered 22-05-26 (note the separator).
The list of templates above does not include D-M-Y.
Calc assumes you entered the date in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD) (uniform for all locales).
If you enter the date as 25-05, then this template (D-M) exists, and the cell will display 25/05/2026 (2026 is the current year. If you enter the same text a year later, the result will be different.).
By the way, why are you using the “-” separator when entering data into a cell? According to UK standards, the “/” separator should be used.
1 Like
Try
- In an empty cell of the date column type =NOW()
- This is the current date format which the cell is using.
- To correct the format for all cells in column, right click the date column header (A, or B, or C, or etc…)
- Select “Format Cells” near the bottom of popup menu.
- In the left pane select Date category, then choose desired format (usually the first), then take note of the format code. example M/D/YY = 1/15/21; MM/DD/YYYY = 01/15/2021; M-D-YY = 1-15-21
- OK then examine date columns. All cells of the date column should now have the same date “view” format!
- Those that you entered “reversed” may be wrong and need to be corrected!