Changing the Date or Time Format in a Header or Footer (94870)

SUMMARY

In Microsoft Excel, when you use the date code (&D) to enter the date in the header or footer of a document, the date appears in the default MM/DD/YY format. The time code (&T) will default to the H:MM AM/PM format.

These date and time formats are based on the date and time settings in the Control Panel both for the Macintosh operating system and for versions 3.0 and later of Microsoft Windows.

If you change the format in the Date and Time settings on the Macintosh, you still have only short dates (5/20/94) and not long dates (May 20, 1994).

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements. To use a date or time format other than the default, do one of the following:

Enter the date or time manually in a different format. -or-
Create a macro to change the format. -or-
Change the short date or time format in Control Panel (when using System 7.1 on the Macintosh this can be done by using the Date And Time Control Panel, or in Windows 3.0 or later this can be done by using the International Control Panel). Note that the formatting change only applies to short dates, the long date format will not be used in the header or footer.

NOTE: If you are using a version of the Macintosh operating system prior to System 7.1, the date format cannot be modified, and the time can only be changed between a 12 and 24 hour clock by using the General Control Panel.

Macro Code to Change the Format

Visual Basic, Applications Edition:

The following macro code places the current date in the footer in the "mmmm d yyyy" format.

   ActiveSheet.PageSetup.LeftFooter = Format(Now, "mmmm d yyyy")

Microsoft Excel 4.0 Macro Language: The following macro code places the current date in the footer in the "dd-mm-yy" format.

   =PAGE.SETUP(,TEXT(NOW(),"dd-mm-yy"))
   =RETURN()

For additional information about getting help with Visual Basic for Applications, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

163435 Programming Resources for Visual Basic for Applications