[xmas]

Ward,

The default formats for UK show up as:

5 January 2007
5 Jan 2007
05/01/2007

for me from the International Pref Pane.

Likewise my Focus Date formats are:
16 Aug 2007
16/08/2007

Can you check your date prefs? It seems like you might have a custom short format which is causing the confusion here.

[Ward]

Originally Posted by xmas

Can you check your date prefs? It seems like you might have a custom short format which is causing the confusion here.

I have created some confusion here by mixing ...

1. Observations about OmniFocus recognition of pure numeric dates with standard United Kingdom preference.

2. Screen shots of my OmniFocus date display with my Custom settings (UK Full, Long & Medium dates + United States Short dates).

I tried to be careful to report the Dates preferences, but I was probably too terse.

[xmas]

aha, I was confused (as I suspected).

So, if I'm back on track, then you want all of your numeric-only dates to be parsed according to your short date format.

While right now the dates with slashes are, the dates with spaces are not.

[Ward]

Originally Posted by xmas

So, if I'm back on track, then you want all of your numeric-only dates to be parsed according to your short date format.

Yes.

Originally Posted by xmas

While right now the dates with slashes are, the dates with spaces are not.

Based on my previous testing with standard United Kingdom for all dates, slashes are OK and spaces are not.

However, with my Custom Dates format and OmniFocus 90134, I'm still experiencing the problem that led me to open this thread. To recap, ...

My Custom Dates:

• Full, Long, Medium: United Kingdom
• Shot: United States

This morning, I had two date failures:

1. I tried entering a new Due date as "8/15" -- it was displayed as "8/8/07".
2. I tried changing an existing "8/14/07" to "8/15/07" -- it reverted to "8/14/07".

Entering "8 15" becomes "8/15/08". This looks like a success, but I suspect this is two errors canceling each other out.

My guess is that OmniFocus is interpreting my Short numeric dates as United Kingdom format.

And there is still the display problem where OmniFocus displays some dates in Short format when there is room for at least Medium. Other dates are using the available space.

[Ward]

Sometime during the past month, OmniFocus changed the Inspector panel to display the Review Next date in Medium format (3-character month); earlier the date was Short format (numeric month) even though there was room for Medium. Start, Due and Completed dates were always in Medium format.

Parsing of dates in the Start and Due columns, which had been problematic, has also changed. But it's still a problem with my Custom date preferences:

• Full, Long, Medium format: United Kingdom (e.g., 13 Sep 2007)
• Short format: United States (e.g., 9/13/07)

The width Start and Due columns allows only Short format dates. So my dates display in numeric United States format. However, when I enter a fully numeric date, I get strange results:

"11/6" becomes "9/11/07"
"11 6" becomes "9/6/07"

With a little experimenting I found "6 nov" becomes "11/6/07". So OmniFocus is requiring that I enter my dates in Medium UK format even though it's displaying these dates in Short US format.

When I tried entering numeric dates in "day month" order, I got more strange results:

"6/11" becomes "9/6/07"
"6 11" becomes "9/11/07"

It seems to me that the date parsing logic should assume a fully numeric date is in Short format.

[submitted as formal feedback]

I also have trouble editing the short format dates (Norwegian date format), for instance: 13.12.07 (13th December 2007). OmniFocus does not recognise any direct editing of the date, so I either has to replace all the . with / or using the calender. Not very effective when I just want to postpone an action with a day or two. The international date support is a little bit weak.

[Ward]

There's comfort in knowing I'm not the only one struggling with entering dates. (Recap: my International date format is customized to US Short and UK Medium - Full.)

Just last night I noticed a slight change in date entry behavior. If I enter a start date as "12/16" (mimicking the display of all start and due dates), OmniFocus leaves it as-is, not filling in the year. If I enter "16 dec", OmniFocus completes the date as "12/16/07".

While writing this, I did more experimenting. It's not that OmniFocus is failing to fill in the year. Instead, it's accepting but failing to recognize a date that is not in "dd mmm" or "dd mmm yy" format. For example, OmniFocus accepts these due dates and displays them as-is: "2", "11/2", "11/2/07", "xyzzy".

"11/2/07" is a special problem because it looks like all the other dates, but it's not being interpreted as an overdue due date.

When I first opened this thread, OmniFocus was coercing unrecognized dates into a valid, erroneous date. Hence, the title of this note.

[submitted as formal feedback]

[Ward]

I'm still having problem with short date recognition in OmniFocus 1.1SP 104457. After reviewing this thread and doing some experimenting, it's clear there have been some changes in numeric date recognition. Although I'm continuing this thread (to help the OmniFocus archeologists), those interested in current SP behavior can start with this note.

Background: My OS X custom date preferences are a mixture of US and UK formats:

• Full, Long, Medium format: United Kingdom (e.g., 12 Sep 2008)
• Short format: United States (e.g., 9/12/08)

When displaying a date, OmniFocus uses the right format depending on the space available, e.g., Short US format in a narrow column, UK format in the Action panel.

However, when I enter a numeric date, OmniFocus always assumes UK order, regardless of the context or the format of the date:

1. "9/12" becomes "12/9/08"
2. "9 12" becomes "12/9/08"
3. "12/9" becomes "9/12/08"
4. "12" in a narrow/short field becomes "8/12/08"

(I'll grant that #2 may be ambiguous because there is no slash.)

It's interesting that OmniFocus doesn't care about day/month order when the month is alphabetic:

• "12 sep" becomes "9/12/08"
• "sep 12" becomes "9/12/08"

It seems to me ...

1. I should be able to enter a date in the same format as it's being shown, e.g., numeric/Short format in a narrow column.
2. If my date includes a slash, it should be interpreted as a Short date because the other formats have no slashes.

[submitted as formal feedback]