[Sigia-l] display of date in multilanguage portal

[George Olsen]

On 3/12/03 3:03 AM, "Jon Hanna" <jon at spin.ie> wrote:
> One problem with the Internet is that the user has such regular contact with
> sites getting it wrong that s/he doesn't necessarily know when you've got it
> right.

True, true. I'm working at an global company with locations around the
world. So we ended up standardizing on numerical date, alphabetical month,
numerical year, i.e. 13 March 2003 (or abbreviated versions). It was the
only way people could be sure of the right date. Looks a little odd to U.S.
employees, but now it's second nature.

That said, I believe both Windows and Mac operating systems automatically
switch date formatting based on language selection, so users that concept
may be familiar to users.

But as Jon pointed out, the expectations may be different on the web, since
so many sites goof things. Since you mentioned the spacing character also
may change to the locally preferred version, that may reassure users that
the date is also in the appropriate format.

George