How can I change the *underlying*/input date format?

I know how to change the presented (output) date format. What I’m asking is, how can I change the input date format when I press F2 in a cell?

In the screencast below, I’m entering the format I like, YYYY-MM-DD. But after I press Enter to save the value of the cell and F2 to edit again, the input date format goes back to the confusing American date format.

Calc uses the American date format

I’m running LibreCalc 6.3.6.2 on Ubuntu 20.04 and my regional settings have been since many reboots ago English (Canada), which dictate YYYY-MM-DD. $LC_TIME has been set to en_CA.

$ locale
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC=en_CA.UTF-8
LC_TIME=en_CA.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY=en_CA.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER=en_CA.UTF-8
LC_NAME=en_CA.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=en_CA.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=en_CA.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=en_CA.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=en_CA.UTF-8
LC_ALL=

LANG=en_US.UTF-8 causes LibreOffice to use English (USA) in Tools -> Options -> Language Settings -> Languages -> Locale Setting, when creating a new user profile and this setting keeps the same until you manually change it or recreate a new user profile (regardless of an changes in the LANG setting) . Hence check whether you find English (Canada) there.

I tried to fight this problem without success. There seems to be no way to scrap the preset default formats. If you are decisive to always want a well proven date format like YYYY-MM-DD (ISO 8601 extended) as replacement for silly formats like most automatic ones, you need to resort to user code, I’m afraid. (It may not be exactly simple.)

@dandv,

Change Locale settings: in menu Tools - Options… - Language Settings - Languages. Not shure wich one. I choosed English (Canada) and it work.

1 Like

Thanks!
I wanted the date in the Input Line to appear as YYYY-MM-DD.
Mine was set to English UK. I set to English Canada and it worked.
I then set it back to English UK and it’s still showing as desired. Happy! :slight_smile: