How to change the default Date format in Excel (and also for all the dates of your computer).
- First, it's not an Excel setting but a Windows setting
The default Date format in Excel in managed by Windows
- Go to the Region Settings
There is a trick to open en Region Settings of Windows with a shortcut
How is a date displayed in Excel?
By default, when you insert a date in a cell, the default delimiter between the day, the month, and the year it's the slash. And this, even if you write your date with dashes. Excel automatically replaces the dashes with slashes 🤔
Step-by-Step Instructions to Modify Default Date Format
To customize the default display, you must change a Windows setting.
- Open the Regional settings of Windows
- You can open it quickly with the command line intl.cpl in the Windows Search box.
- Click on the dropdown button for the short or long date.
- When you press the drop-down button, you display other date formats
- But the choices is limited (there is no option to display dates with dashes for example 😕)
Related Articles
- Date Picker in Excel
- Write Months in Excel in a Foreign Language
- How to display Months in Letters in Excel?
Create your custom date format for Excel
- To Create your custom default date format, click on Additional Settings.
- Go to the Date tab
- Change the custom date format to dd-MM-yyyy (explanation for the code here)
And without restarting Excel, neither your computer, all the dates format in your worksheets has the dash for date delimiter 😉
Caution !!!!!!!
- You don't change the settings of the default date display ONLY for Excel
- ALL THE DATES of your computer are impacted by this update😲
- So, take care if you change the date format of your computer. It could generate bad side effects for other applications.
05/12/2023 @ 04:32
I didn't have the dash option only / . However, still helpful. Thanks!
05/12/2023 @ 09:01
It's not a problem. Write your custom code directly in the textbox with the dashes.
03/02/2023 @ 15:12
Thank you very much. Solved an irritating problem.
26/07/2022 @ 12:05
This is what I wanted. This is exactly spot on. I got what I wanted, Thanks.
25/07/2022 @ 20:08
100% agree, need Excel default not Windows
30/05/2022 @ 17:37
I think this post misses the point entirely. This isn't changing the default setting in Excel. This is changing Windows. For example, if I enter the value 5/31 into Excel, it automatically converts it to 31-May. This is totally not useful. I know some people will argue that point, but they're wrong. And here's why. If I create the workbook in 2022, and then in 2025 someone opens this workbook and sees 31-May, they're going to perhaps assume that the date refers to May 31, 2025. This could lead to all kinds of issues. Yes, they COULD select the cell and change the format to mm/dd/yyyy to find out what the actual date is. But most people won't do that.
Sure, if I type 5/31/22, Excel formats it correctly (5/31/2022). But if I have hundreds of dates to enter and they are scattered in random columns and rows, then physically typing that extra "/22" cost time, creates repetitive motiion that is unnecessary, or requires selecting all those random locations and changing the format. All of this is avoided by allowing us to set a default date code. After all, Excel already has default date codes - we've discussed two of them already. But they need to go one step farther and let us actually have control over what date code forward to use. If I want to set a custom date code format of "yyyy-mmmm-dd hh:mm:ss" then I should be able to set that and not have to muck around setting individual cell formats or typing the entire thing out each time.
My Windows date format is correct for the region I'm in. What I need to know is how to set a default Date format in Excel that isn't mmm-dd. So the answer to "Change the default date format in excel" is not to change your windows settings. Most people already have the correct date format set for their installation of windows based on their region. After all, the date and time in my task bar always shows a complete date mm/dd/yyyy. So I'm betting that 90% of the people who are searching for this "change the default date format in excel" are not looking to change their windows settings.
Excel let's you set default fonts, set an office background to "tree rings," and select a "sound scheme" for feedback options. But something that might actually help with data integrity is nowhere to be found....
18/10/2022 @ 06:05
You got it 100% spot on
30/10/2022 @ 14:31
Rob, I have fought the exact same problem for months. All I want is to enter date in any and all spreadsheets and have them default to 01/02/2022, etc. without having to go to the format options every time I create a new worksheet.
Perhaps there is a way to do this in the registry, but one would assume that that is overkill.
Have you found a solution?
Kenton
07/06/2024 @ 20:17
EXACTLY... so very frustrating. We aren't living in 1990 are we?
06/11/2024 @ 19:21
Exactly. MS gives us heaps of useless customization options, but what we really need doesn't exist.