Excel date formatting changes

Posted on 30 October 2023 by Beaming Support

Some users have encountered a problem when sharing / collaborating on Excel documents, specifically with regards to the formatting of dates.

The UK standard of DD/MM/YYYY may be automatically switched to the US standard of MM/DD/YYYY when uploaded to the cloud – even when shared solely with others in the UK.

How does this happen?

This happens when the format below is selected – with the asterisk at the start.

A screenshot of the date formatting options in excel. The top option is highlighted, a UK-formatted date with an asterix at the start.

The asterisk indicates that the date will be displayed according to the format of the user’s computer. However, when documents are uploaded to the cloud, they may be being shared via a US-based server – so the format is getting picked up from this location, as opposed to the computer it is being viewed on.

A screenshot of information from the excel date format pop up - it includes the following 'Date formats that begin with an asterisk (*) respond to changes in regional date and time settings that are specified for the operating system. Formats without an asterisk are not affected by operating system settings.'

How can I fix this?

Luckily, there is an easy way to work around this. Simply select the date format without the asterisk, and the date format will stay the same.

A screenshot of the date formatting options in excel. The third option is highlighted, a UK-formatted date without an asterix at the start.

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