UI Date entry format - UK vs USA

julianhopkins
Hi,

I'm having an issue with how to enter dates in UI and the format that it reads. I'm using Zotero 2.0.9

For example, I want to enter: 1 December 2010

If I put in 1/12/10, it interprets is as 12 January 2010

In other words, it uses the 'American' format - mm/dd/yy althought my OS (Windows 7) is set to the 'UK' format - dd/mm/yy

It's not a huge problem, but on my old PC (recently got a new one), it was set to the UK format, and now it's no longer that way and I'd like to get it back.

I can't see anywhere to set this as a preference. Is it in Firefox perhaps?

Thanks,
Julian
  • Simon
    edited December 12, 2010
    I think that this should work if you change the general.useragent.locale preference to en-GB in about:config, or, alternatively, if you install the en-GB version of Firefox.
  • julianhopkins
    Excellent! I changed the general.useragent.locale and it worked :)

    Thanks very much for the help. Don't know why I didn't install the en-GB version in the first place.
  • julianhopkins
    As a follow-up and for information to anyone who comes across this discussion, it seems like the solution of changing the general.useragent.locale was not a good idea after all.

    Today I started getting an error message from the Word plugin:
    "Zotero experienced an error updating your document
    this.itemSet is undefined"

    All styles were affected, as was creating a bibliography directly from the Zotero pane (i.e. it wasn't just the plugin).

    On a hunch, because I don't think I have used the citation tool since the above, I tried changing en-GB back to en-US, and it fixed the problem.

    So, I guess if I want en-GB, I have to reinstall Firefox.
  • Catherine
    edited January 6, 2011
    Hello,

    I'm having the same problem as julianhopkins. I put in 12/09/2010 and Zotero interprets it as Dec. 9 and not Sep. 12.
    I've downloaded Firefox in British English. The general.useragent.locale preference is in en-GB. But the problem remains.
    What could I do? I'm using Mac OS X.

    Many thanks in advance.

    Catherine
  • dstillman
    edited January 6, 2011
    What could I do?
    Enter "Nov 9" instead?

    With general.useragent.locale set to en-GB it should work, though—I'm not sure why it wouldn't.
  • Catherine
    "Enter "Nov 9" instead?"

    Well... okay if there is not better way to proceed. But that's a bit contradictory with the idea that this field as it is, is for the user to enter data in any way that is natural or convenient to his/her.

    My computer is set up in French where the convention is that 12/09/10 is September the 12th of 2010.

    Thanks for a quick answer anyway. I hope that the date field will improve.
  • ajlyon
    If you are using the French version of Firefox, this shouldn't be happening, nor with the en-GB locale. Zotero just uses the date system of the underlying locale (system or Firefox), so this really shouldn't happen.
  • dstillman
    Catherine: Provide a Debug ID for saving a (new) date to a field that doesn't get properly interpreted. Also provide a Report ID if possible.
  • Catherine
    This is working now for new entries. Perhaps because I got my computer restarted in the meantime. Older date entries remain in the wrong order (except if I retype them) but I suspect it to be normal.
    Sorry about that and thanks a lot for the support.

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