2009/1/9 M Henri Day <[email protected]> > 2009/1/9 NoOp <[email protected]> > > > On 01/09/2009 10:55 AM, Dotan Cohen wrote: > > > 2009/1/9 NoOp <[email protected]>: > > >> It is, as Brian points out, a locale issue. If I (using "en_US.UTF-8") > > >> enter 8.5 in a cell, I get 8.5. However if I enter 8/5 in the cell, I > > >> get 08/05/09 - unless of course I set my locale to Dutch, and then I > get > > >> 05/08/09. > > >> > > >> Now I go a step further: > > Format|Cells|Numbers|-Language|-Dutch(Netherlands) > > >> and I can enter 8.5 in the cell and it will return 05-08-09. If I set > it > > >> back to English US and then reenter 8.5, the result that I get is 8.5. > > >> > > >> Note to Dotan: If I set the cell language to Hebrew, I get 8.5. > > >> > > > > > > Actually, I am using a Dutch locale as I need the yyyy-mm-dd date > > > formating. I think that I will file yabtwbibs on the issue. > > > > > > > Then I fail to see what the problem is & agree with Harold and Erling - > > use a comma. If you look at Tools|Options|Language > > Settings|Language|Decimal separator key will be set to a comma (,) when > > the locale setting is set to Dutch (Belgium). > > > If «8,5» is entered into a cell on my machine, with the standard Western > language set to Swedish, it does not, just as Harold and Gary suggest, > undergo a transformation into a date format. Well and good, but if I wish > to > publish a table in, say, English, I would need to transform the decimal > commas into decimal points, so as not to confuse readers unused to the > continental system. I should have thought that unticking the box which > marks > the decimal symbol as being that of the standard language would have > sufficed to avoid the problem, but it seems that this is not the case. > Instead, one must modify the standard language for the document in question > to one which uses a decimal point rather than a decimal comma. Not a big > deal, especially with languages whose orthography is as close to that of > English as is that of Swedish, but it would be convenient if, in future > updates, the possibility to choose the decimal symbol could be modified > independently of the standard language setting.... > > Henri >
I don't think you need to change the *language*, only the locale which, in 2.4.1 on Windows at least, is a separate setting. Thus all the spelling will still be checked in the correct language but decimal points will change. Also, I checked and found, to my delight, that currency symbols do *not* change. Someone has thought about this and done the right thing :-) -- Harold Fuchs London, England Please reply *only* to [email protected]
