When working in Smartsheet, you’re probably going to insert many dates to mark important checkpoints in your business progress and highlight certain events. To make sure you’re on the same page with your colleagues, you may need to change the date format.
In this article, we’ll explain how to change the date format in Smartsheet. We’ll also show you a few helpful features you can use when inserting and formatting dates.
How to Change Date Formula on Smartsheet?
The Date formula (or DATE function) enables you to insert dates in Smartsheet. You can input a date by typing “=DATE(year, month, day)” in a cell or using the “Functions” option in the toolbar.
If you want to change the existing Date formula in a cell, follow these steps:
- Open your sheet in Smartsheet.
- Double-click the on the cell containing the date value.
- Change the year, month, or day.
- Press “Enter” or click anywhere on the sheet.
Note: The cell with the Date formula you want to change must be in the Date type column.
Unfortunately, if you want to change the way the Date formula operates, Smartsheet doesn’t allow you to do this. When you type in the Date formula, you have to follow the year-month-day order.
However, what you can do instead is change the date format of the Date formula result. You don’t need to do this manually once you type in the formula. Rather, change the default date format. Once you do this, the result of the Date formula will appear in the default date format.
We’ll show you exactly how to change your default date format in the next section, so continue reading.
Additional FAQs
How Do I Change the Default Date Format?
The default date format depends on your Regional Preferences. If your Regional Preferences setting is set to “English (United States),” “MM/DD/YY” will appear as your default date format. Similarly, if you choose “English (United Kingdom)” as your regional preference, the default date would appear in the “DD/MM/YY” format. Thus, to change the default date format in Smartsheet, you have to change your region.
1. Open your sheet in Smartsheet.
2. Click on the account icon in the lower-right corner of the screen.
3. In the extended menu, click “Personal settings.”
4. Select “Settings” in the sidebar to your left.
5. In the “Regional Preferences” section, click on the small arrow next to your current region.
6. In the drop-down list, choose the region that corresponds to your desired date format.
7. Click “Save.”
Great! The date format you set will appear in your spreadsheet.
Note: Under Regional Preferences, you can preview the date and number format before clicking “Save.”
How Do I Change My Date Format From DD MM to YYYY?
For various reasons, the date in your cells may appear in the short date format (i.e. “DD/MM” or “MM/DD”). If you want to change it to a “YYYY” type, Smartsheet gives you multiple options to do this. You can change the date format of a single cell, multiple cells, or even set one of the “YYYY” formats as your default date format.
Single Cell
1. Open your sheet in Smartsheet.
2. Click on the cell with the date whose format you want to change.
3. In the horizontal toolbar, click on the small arrow button next to the “Date Format” button.
4. Select the type of “YYYY” date you want (e.g. 2020.08.04.)
Multiple Cells
1. Open your sheet.
2. Click and drag your cursor over the cells whose dates you want to change.
3. In the horizontal toolbar, click on the small arrow button next to the “Date Format” button.
4. Select the type of “YYYY” date you want (e.g. 2020-10-05).
Note: If you wish to change the dates back to their original format, highlight the cells with dates and click the “Date Format” button in the horizontal toolbar.
Set YYYY as Your Default Date Format
To change your default date format to a “YYYY” type, you need to set your Regional Preferences according to the “YYYY” date type.
Since different types of “YYYY” are linked to different regions, as an example, here is a partial list of regions and their corresponding “YYYY” date types:
• English (Malta) – DD/MM/YYYY
• Português (Portugal) – DD-MM-YYYY
• Finnish (Finland) – DD.MM.YYYY.
• English (South Africa) – YYYY/MM/DD
• Swedish (Sweden) – YYYY-MM-DD
• Hungarian (Hungary) – YYYY.MM.DD.
You can set one of these “YYYY” date types as your default date format in the following way:
1. Click on the account icon in the top-right corner of the screen.
2. In the extended menu, click “Personal settings.”
3. Select “Settings” in the sidebar to your left.
4. In the “Regional Preferences” section, click on the small arrow button next to your current region.
5. Choose the region from the list above that corresponds to your desired date format.
Note: When changing the default date format, you also change the default number format.
What Is a Smartsheet Date?
The term “Smartsheet Date” can refer to the many roles a date in Smartsheet can have. For example, a date can be a cell value. If you want a cell to transform your input into a date automatically, set the column properties to show only date values.
1. Open your sheet.
2. Right-click on the column in which you want to input date values.
3. In the pop-up menu, click “Edit Column Properties.”
4. Select “Date.”
5. Click “OK.”
When you type in “4-15-19” and press “Enter,” Smartsheet will automatically convert this to your default date format.
“Smartsheet Date” can also refer to the DATE function. However, you can insert dates using the DATE function only in Date type columns.
Here’s how the DATE function looks:
“=DATE(year,month,day)”
When you type in the DATE function and press “Enter,” Smartsheet will show the default date format. So, if your default date format is “MM/DD/YY” and you type in “=DATE(2020,12,10),” you’ll see “12/10/20.”
How Do I Change the Date Format in Smartsheet?
Smartsheet gives you the option to change date formats for specific cells. You can pick any cell or a range of cells and change their date format in a few quick steps.
1. Open your sheet.
2. Select one or more cells in the Date type column.
3. In the horizontal toolbar, click on the small arrow button next to the “Date Format” button.
4. Choose the date format you want.
Note: If you want to change the dates back to their original format, select the cells and click the “Date Format” button in the horizontal toolbar.
If you want to type dates in cells outside a Date type column, Smartsheet allows you to do this. However, Smartsheet won’t recognize the cell value as a date, so you’ll have to change the date format manually.
How Do I Change the Date Format From One File to Another?
If you have two or more separate sheets in Smartsheet, you can use the Cell Linking feature to transfer date values from one sheet (e.g. Sheet 1) to the other (e.g. Sheet 2). When you make changes to date values in Sheet 1, the date values in the linked cells in Sheet 2 will change accordingly.
While the Cell Linking feature enables you to change dates across your sheets, it doesn’t let you change the date format. You’ll have to do this manually once you link the cells.
1. Open Sheet 1.
2. Enter date values in a Date type column.
3. Go to Sheet 2.
4. Highlight cells in a Date type column. Note: You can only change the date format for cells in Date type columns.
5. Click the “Cell Linking” button in the horizontal toolbar.
6. Select “Sheet 1” in the left menu.
7. Select the cells whose values you want to link to Sheet 2.
8. Click “Create Link.”
9. Go to Sheet 2.
10. Select the date values in linked cells.
11. In the horizontal toolbar, click on the small arrow button next to the “Date Format” button.
12. Select the date format you want.
Unfortunately, this is the only way you can change the date format of date values linked to cells in another sheet.
Change the Format – Not the Formula
Among many features that Smartsheet offers, changing the date format may be something that doesn’t come intuitively. You need to set the column type to “Date” so that Smartsheet recognizes your values as dates. Only then can you change the format by using the “Date Format” option.
Also, you can change the default date format in the Regional Preferences settings. In this way, when you insert a date using the Date formula, the result will appear in the default date format.
How did you change the date format in Smartsheet? Do you know another approach to this issue? If so, feel free to share it in the comments section below.
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