[OT] OpenOffice calc question

[Matthew Gillen]

Jerry Feldman wrote:
> On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:31:21 -0400
> Matthew Gillen <me-5yx05kfkO/aqeI1yJSURBw at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> 
>> Jerry Feldman wrote:
>>> My company's product uses dates in yyyymmdd format, but can import csv
>>> files directly from any spreadsheet. If I import a csv containing
>>> yyyymmdd, OO calc correctly displays the date, but if I want to modify
>>> the spreadsheet (mainly financial curves), it outputs the date in the
>>> mmddyyyy or mmddyy in the resultant csv. Does anyone know how I can
>>> tell OO to output dates in the desired format preferably without
>>> changing the entire locale. Of course, the csv can be edited with emacs
>>> (or lesser capable editors like vi :-). 
>> Go to Format->Cells... and select the "Numbers" tab.  Then look for the "Date"
>> field in the left-most combo box, and you should be able to take it from there...
> 
> That works fine when you select specific cells, but is there a way to
> set a global formatting option. In the csv file we are using for a
> test, there are 6 date cells. AFAIK, I must first select each of the
> cells, then go to Format->Cells, of right click in each of the cells.
> What I am looking for is a way to tell calc to use this formatting for
> all the date cells in the sheet. Selecting the whole spread sheet is
> not the right way to do it, nor is selecting a column since the date
> fields are in different columns. And, since I am working with csv
> files, the formatting is not saved. 
> 
> One solution would be to save the sheet as both an ods and csv. That
> way the formatting would be preserved. 

Yikes.  You might try to tinker with the "Save Cell Content as shown" option
 (to get this option, do a "Save As..." then select the .csv type, and then
check the "Edit Filter Settings" box.

Or you could write a post-processing script in sed :-P

HTH,
Matt

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