Death to Microsoft Word

Factual Questions
1

Yes, I actually do want the date to say 27/05/11. Really really really I do. Does the fact that I keep changing it from 5/27/11 to 27/05/11 not make it clear that 27/05/11 is the text I want to show up? Your insistence on Americanizing the date only makes you look stupid. Further, since I’m sending the report to Europe, it makes me look stupid. Die die die!

Why must you keep hidden from me the way to blow your brains in so that I can, I don’t know, type in what I fucking want to type and not have you mess with it? Frankly, I would be much happier with a lobotomized Microsoft Word so that I can type what I want in peace. Seriously, do you really think people typing the date in European Format LIKE that you keep fucking with it? In what universe does someone type in the day first but really mean for the month to come first. And WTF are you going to say when some of the dates, but not all, are ambiguous? Are you going to change some of the dates but not all of them thereby making the document inconsistent? gah! The stupid!

I want to find the person who programmed in the goddamn American bias on dates and hurt him. Nothing fatal, maybe just break his wrist so he can never do this again.

Barring that, can someone tell me how to tell MS Word to shut the fuck up about dates?
In Excel I can change the cell type, but for some reason I can’t do the same thing in Word; at least I can’t find how to do it.

I hate Word.

2

It looks like you might have to do this through Windows’ Regional and Language options settings menu. If you go to the Regional and Language Options dialog box there should be a Format tab that you can select the default date format for, and that should then apply to all Office applications.

I can give more specific instructions if necessary, just let me know what OS you’re using.

PS: I found a way to turn date autocomplete off entirely. It involves running a macro. The info is here: http://word.herbtyson.com/?p=76

I will save my commentary on what I think about the fact that you have to run a macro in order to disable autocomplete functionality, because we’re not in the Pit.

3

I think you need to change the settings in your Control Panel.

Depending on the OS version it can be different places but for Vista it’d be under “Regional and Language Options”.

Software reads those settings to decide what to do with dates and such.

4

I wish I could help you but I can’t. I opened word to see if I couldn’t figure it out and my version didn’t switch the numbers around. It left it just as I had typed it. I can only assume it did that to me some time lost to my memory and I lobotomized it myself but didn’t leave a note.

5

Firt off, which version of Word? On which OS? What country is your OS set to? And what language? What country and language is your document set to?

Then somebody who actually knows what they’re talking about can tell you the easy way to make it do what you want.

6

I’m on a Mac. Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac.
I appreciate the help.

I found a workaround. I saved the document as a pdf in the short interval between my typing things in and MS Word getting it greedy little mitts on my date.
If there is a solution, I’d love to hear it so that I might be saved from future rages.

7

In Office 2007 on a PC, you just right-click on the date, select “Edit Field” and switch it to D/M/YYYY. What’s the right-click equivalent for a Mac?

8

Control-click, if you have one of those godforsaken Mac mouses. But just because you use a Mac doesn’t mean you can’t connect proper peripherals to it.

9

I just typed 27/05/11 in Word Mac 2011 and it left it unchanged. Auto format didn’t touch it.

10

This may not be an ok solution for you, but you could type 27 May, 2011 (I’m assuming this might work, not sure)