How to change a format of inserted date in MS Word?

Question

There are shortcut keys in MS Word to insert a date: Shift + Alt + D. But it inserts a date in this format:

1/26/1015

even when my Windows system wide settings are set for this format:

2015-01-26.

So Word has its own date format settings, I think.

How to change it?

Answer 1

Found here:

To insert the date type Alt+Shift+D.

To change the time or date format hit Alt+N+D, click on or scroll to the one you want and use the key combo Alt+D. Hit Enter twice.

Answer 2

The format of the date inserted depends on the language in the spellcheck. You can change this language in the Review tab->Language->Set Proofing Language. Here are a few examples of the output in different languages:

• English (Unites States): 3/8/2017
• Swedish: 2017-03-08
• French: 08/03/2017

These formats are the ones that are commonly used in each language. So it seems that your spell checker in Word is in English and your system is in a language that formats dates in the same way as in Swedish. If you're writing a document in English, it's probably best to format dates like in English, and if you're not, you should change the spellcheck language. However, if you really want to write in English and use the 2017-03-08 format, you can temporarily change the spell checker to a language that uses that format (for example Swedish) and then changing it back to English after having inserted the date won't change the date format.

If you want to change the way the date is formatted in a certain language, you can go to the Insert tab->Date and time. Then a window will pop up with a list of ways to format dates and times in that language:

To set one as default, pick one and click on the Default button. When you've done that, that format will be used every time you insert a date using Shift+Alt+D. You can also insert a date or time in a specific format without using it as default by pressing OK. When you set the default for one language, it won't change anything for the other languages.

You can also change the language in which it's formatted by selecting another language in the Language list on the right. However this will also change the language of the spell checker, but as I said, changing the language back after inserting the date won't change the date format.

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To summarize, here is what you should do to solve your problem:

1. Change the spellcheck language to Swedish or any other language that uses the 2017-03-08 format.
2. Insert a date by pressing Shift+Alt+D.
3. Change the spellcheck language back to English or whatever language you're writing in.

This is the result:

Answer 3

Yes, Word has its own date format settings, per language, according to the language of the text in the document as recognized by Word or as set by the user.

The way to access these settings depends on Word version (and user interface language, which affects the keyboard shortcuts). In Word 2013, English, select the INSERT tab and click on the Date and Time icon in the Text group. (If the Word window is not wide enough, the icon appears without the accompanying text.) It opens a Date and Time window where you can set the format, for the language used.