Date Display Format Tricks

Save As PDF, Save As PDF Pro, Attachment Save, Attachment Save Pro, Rename Attachments and Quick Text Hotkeys all allow you to specify a date/time format.  The add-in provides a drop down list that allows you to select a pre-defined date format.  What most people don’t realize is that they can type directly in that box to specify a custom format.  I get a lot of people asking how they can get the format to display in a specific way.  I hope that the Outlook date display format tips and tricks provided here will help answer your questions. Here is a list of formats that can be used:

  •  d – day of the month, no leading zero (1-30 (or 31))
  • dd – day of month, with leading zero (01-30 (or 31))
  • ddd – day of the week, short form (like Mon, Tue, Wed)
  • dddd – day of the week, long form (like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday)
  • w – week of the year, no leading zero (1-51)
  • ww – week of the year, with leading zero (01-51)
  • M – month, no leading zero (1-12)
  • MM – month, with leading zero (01-12)
  • MMM – full month name, short (like Oct, Nov, Dec)
  • MMMM – full month name, long (like October, November, December)
  • y – day of the year
  • yy – two digit year
  • yyyy – four digit year
  • h – hours
  • hh – hours with leading zero
  • m – minutes
  • mm – minutes with leading zero
  • s – seconds
  • ss – seconds with leading zero
  • AMPM – Appends “AM” or “PM” to the time; if this is left off, you get military time

Here are a few examples of how to use these formats for  December 1, 2022 at 1:05 PM:

  • m/d/yy -> 12/1/22
  • h:nn AMPM -> 1:05 PM
  • dddd, mmmm d, yyyy -> Thursday, December 1, 2022
  • h:nn -> 13:05

Want even more format options?  See the complete list of date/time formats directly from Microsoft.

This trick really comes in handy for our European customers trying to get the time and date in a format they are used to.  This allows great flexibility to the formats for use and provides a way to display the information in just about any way you can think of.