Flexible Date Formatting

I have discovered 27 distinct methods for formatting dates, not including variations in separators. Unfortunately, Smartsheet only offers 10 date format choices. In the IT field, aligning data with its intended use is crucial, and proper date formatting plays a significant role in multi-factor authentication. If a user requires the MM/DD/YYYY format, but Smartsheet displays the year as two digits, it will create problems.

I have a scenario where we test new software with a group of over 500 testers. To access their assigned testing persona and credentials, testers refer to their name on Smartsheet. For some users, the DOB is used as part of the Multi-Factor Authentication, similar to a healthcare patient accessing their medical records through a portal. However, if the testers only see the last two digits of the year (YY) instead of the full year (YYYY), authentication will fail.

Having all the possible date formats and separators in the drop-down list would be fantastic.

Sign in to vote!

Find more posts tagged with

Healthcare

functionality

IT & Operations

Idea Submitted

Comments

Carson Penticuff

I found this suggesting while searching for a specific date format. MM/DD/YYYY is an extremely popular format and I use it almost exclusively, outside of Smartsheet.

Lesa Weaver

We have this issue with the Smartsheet to Docusign interface. DocuSign requires the MM/DD/YYYY format, but Smartsheet stores the year as two digits. So when we send a document to Docusign with dates that were selected with the calendar on their dashboard, they have to change it/select it again in Docusign or it won't let them sign. This is creating problems when people just need to sign.

Also when we export the data from Smartsheet, I'm having to change all the date formats manually before using the data in other systems! It's alot of extra work.

spauliszyn

Not only that, we may just want different formats for preference. There should be a user setting that just picks up the format they prefer from the Windows control panel.

I prefer "YYYY-MM-DD" because it sorts better in many other platforms and the delineators are cleaner than hashes and periods--totally a preference. But I also want "ddd YYYY-MM-DD" so that we can easily recognize days of the week when dates are closer.

We really need custom user format strings like in regular spreadsheets and apps.

spauliszyn

Actually right now I need a format like "ddd, mmm-d" (like "Fri, Aug-16). These are for near due dates dates where the day of the week is useful but the year is not.

I could make a custom column function to make my own format but then the date can't be directly edited in that column

Michael Van Drunen

Smartsheet should, actually needs to have a custom Date Format. I have terrible experiences in the past using different regional date formats, especially when they are all numbers. Too easy to have the Month and Day confused in America, versus the EU versus elsewhere.

Quick Links

Trending ideas

Attachments in Cells
I rely heavily on Smartsheet’s Document Generation. However, this workflow is currently dependent on having photos stored inside cells, since row attachments alone cannot be used directly in document generation.. If Smartsheet allowed attachments to be displayed as thumbnails in cells (as a reference), document generation…
WorkApp Analytics
I’d like to see user analytics for WorkApps. I’ve checked the user report available in the Collaborator Pack, but it only shows how many times someone has clicked into the WorkApp each month. I’d like to know: Which resources (dashboards, sheets, forms, etc.) are getting the most traffic? Where are people spending their…
Editable email Subject header from Smartsheet Notification
Hi There, I would like to propose that Smartsheet considers the email subject header that is received from a Smartsheet notification from a form or sheet. Currently, because not everyone in my company has Smartsheet, let alone a Smartsheet log-in, we need to send show the name of the owner of the sheet, that appears on the…