Change Default Date Format in OpenOffice Calc?

[Ubuntist]

When I type a date into a cell in an OpenOffice.org Calc worksheet, it is formatted as DD/MM/YY by default. I'd rather have D MMM YY (i.e., "6 Jan 2010") as the default. Would anyone know how to change the default date format?

[Rmantingh]

I have no problem entering your date format into Calc.
If I type 1 Jan 10 (or 1 jan 2010) it gives me a correct date back.
Admittedly this is then initially converted to the default DD/MM/YY format but this is a display format and can be easily changed by setting the format of the cell:-
Format -> Cells -> Numbers tab -> Date (select one from the list or enter a custom format string)

[Ubuntist]

I get the same behavior: when I type in D MMM YY, it is correctly converted to DD/MM/YY. That's no problem. I just wish I could get Calc to use D MMM YY by default, so I wouldn't have to keep changing the format. Anyway to do that?

[mynamewastaken1]

http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffi...ting-a-sm.html

I had the same problem. The link above describes how to fix it. The link changes something else, but the same method will work for what you want. Just select the appropriate date format instead of checking that checkbox. I'm sure you'll figure it out.

[Rmantingh]

I fail to see how this would work (perhaps I'm missing something).
I've tried setting the default style to be Date -> D MMM YY
All this does is that any number entered in any of the cells is automatically converted to a date.
How is that helpful?
If I enter, for instance, the number 1 it changes it to "31 Dec 99".

[MathUHenry]

This doesn't quite work for me. I can correct the date format to YY-MM-DD and save it as the template. But then when I open a document and type a number, it gets forced to a date format. When I set the cells to default to number format (as it should be) then type a date, the date is again defaulting to a wrong format. Is it possible to correct the "Default" date format while still using US English?