LibreOffice Calc date format

[nedp64]

Hello,

I have LibreOffice 24.2.7.2 which comes as a system package (4:24.2.7-0ubuntu0.24.04.4) on Linux Mint Zara 22.2 kernel 6.14.

In “LibreOffice Calc, Tools, Options, Languages and Locales, General” I have chosen “Default - Italian (Italy)” as “User interface” and “English (USA)” as “Locale setting” because I want to have the full stop/period as the decimal separator instead of the default comma.

The LibreOffice locale details says: en-US (it_IT.UTF-8); UI: it-IT

When I open a Microsoft Excel file previously created in Microsoft Windows, all is fine except the dates which are displayed as 12/31/1999 (mm/dd/yyyy) instead of what I’d like which is 31/12/1999 (dd/mm/yyyy).

Is there a way (from the LibreOffice settings or maybe also from the Linux Mint settings) to open a Microsoft Excel file and have the dates directly displayed as dd/mm/yyyy?

I tried playing with the “Date acceptance patterns” field but had no success:
- cannot enter anything like dd/mm/yyyy
- I am not sure if “Date acceptance patterns” is the right place where to try achieving what I asked above

Thank you

[Wanderer]

@nedp64

to open a Microsoft Excel file and have the dates directly displayed as dd/mm/yyyy?

At first: Check, if the file brings is own formatting. When I set a format for cells this is stored and used also on other computers.
(Makes sense, as I maybe set something short like DD.MM. and have not left enough space to display YYYY-MM-DD in the column)
.
Only for default/standard/automatic one could discuss to use viewers settings. But I remember old ASCII times where 1234 $ could be shown as 1234 £ on other computers/printers.
So keeping creators format can be the better option…

[sokol92]

@nedp64

s there a way (from the LibreOffice settings or maybe also from the Linux Mint settings) to open a Microsoft Excel file and have the dates directly displayed as dd/mm/yyyy?

When you open an Excel file in Calc, numbers and dates in predefined formats are displayed according to LibreOffice’s default locale.
Therefore, you need to select a default locale that meets your expectations.
You can use macro that will compactly show how dates and numbers are displayed in different locales.
I think the en_GB locale might be of interest to you.

[nedp64]

Hi soko192,
the en-GB LO locale did the trick for me and now also the dates are in the format I want when I open a Microsoft Excel file.
I marked your suggestion as a solution.
Thanks, to you and all!