Sway Language settings

Question

Hi, my Sway settings are correctly set as English (United Kingdom), as are my Excel settings. However, when I put an Excel spreadsheet in my Sway, it shows US style dates in the embedded sheet e.g. 04/02/2024 rather than 02/04/2024. Any ideas how to fix this?

Answer 1

Hello,

It seems like the issue you're experiencing with Sway displaying US-style dates in an embedded Excel spreadsheet despite having the correct language settings could be related to the formatting settings within the Excel spreadsheet itself. Here's how you can adjust the date formatting in Excel to ensure it displays in the desired format:

Open the Excel Spreadsheet: Access the Excel spreadsheet that you're embedding into your Sway presentation.

Select the Date Cells: Identify the cells containing the dates that are displaying in the US-style format.

Change Date Format: Right-click on the selected cells and choose "Format Cells" from the context menu. Alternatively, you can go to the "Home" tab in the Excel ribbon, click on the "Number Format" dropdown menu, and select "More Number Formats."

Choose Date Format: In the "Format Cells" dialog box, navigate to the "Number" tab if it's not already selected. From the Category list, choose "Date." Then, select the desired date format from the available options. In your case, you'd want to select a format that displays the day before the month (e.g., "dd/mm/yyyy").

Apply Changes: Click "OK" to apply the chosen date format to the selected cells.

Save Changes: Save the Excel spreadsheet after making the necessary formatting adjustments.

Once you've updated the date formatting in Excel, embed the spreadsheet into your Sway presentation again. The dates should now display in the desired format (dd/mm/yyyy) within the embedded Excel spreadsheet in your Sway.

If you're still encountering issues with the date formatting in Sway after adjusting the Excel spreadsheet, you may want to double-check the language and regional settings within your Sway account settings to ensure they align with your preferred language and date format.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any further questions.

Best Regards, Saurabh

Answer 2

Thanks Saurabh,

The dates were formatted and displaying correctly in my spreadsheet but I have re-formatted, re-added it to Sway and it now seems to showing correctly - weird!