Dates in reports normally follow your computer’s short date format, as defined in your Regional settings. However, Meeting Schedule Assistant also lets you fully customise how dates appear by using your own formatting codes.

Custom date format

Figure 78: Use custom formatting for dates

Enabling Custom Dates

To use a custom date format:

  1. Enable Use Custom Date.
  2. Enter a format string in the edit box, or choose one of the 11 predefined formats from the dropdown.
  3. You can modify any predefined format. When you do, the dropdown automatically changes to User Defined.

Your format string can include special characters (format codes) that represent date parts. Any other characters you type will appear literally in the output.

Format Codes

Meeting Schedule Assistant supports two sets of date format codes. The set available depends on your language and version.

1. Standard Format Codes (All Languages)

These percent‑based codes are supported in every language.

Code

Description

%a

Abbreviated day of the week

%A

Full day of the week

%b

Abbreviated month

%B

Full month name

%d

Day of month with leading zero (01–31)

%m

Month with leading zero (01–12)

%y

Last two digits of the year (00–99)

%Y

Full year (e.g., 2025)

%#d, %#m, %#y

Same as above but without leading zeros

2. Extended Format Codes

Available from version 19.0.4 onward, these codes offer a more intuitive formatting style similar to other date‑formatting systems.

Code

Description

d

Day of month (1–31)

dd

Day of month with leading zero (01–31)

ddd

Abbreviated day of the week

dddd

Full day of the week

M

Month (1–12)

MM

Month with leading zero (01–12)

MMM

Abbreviated month

MMMM

Full month name

y

Last digit of the year (0–9)

yy

Last two digits of the year (00–99)

yyyy

Full four‑digit year

Exceptions — Languages That Must Use Standard % Codes Only

The extended format codes are not supported in the following languages. These languages must continue using the standard percent‑based codes:

Amharic, Arabic, Aukan, Cebuano, Chinese Simplified, Cibemba, Gun, Haitian Creole, Saramaccan, Sesotho (South Africa), Sranantongo.

Displaying Literal Text

To include literal characters (such as labels or symbols) in your date format:

  • Wrap them in single quotes:
    'like this'
  • To include a single quote in the output, use two single quotes:
    'abc''bar' → abc'bar

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