Created attachment 64260 [details] a screenshot of the described problem **Problem description: - Trying to change the date formate in a cell or a grp of cells yields "###" - Date formats yielding the aforementioned result are: NNNNMMMM DD, YYYY; MM/DD/YYYY; MMM D, YYYY; D. MMM. YYYY; MMMM D, YYYY; D. MMMM YYYY; NN, MMM D, YY; NN DD/MMM YY; NN, MMMM D, YYYY; NNNNMMMM D, YYYY; YYYY-MM-DD; QQ YY; MM/DD/YY HH:MM AM/PM; MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS; [~jewish]NNNND MMMM YYYY; [~jewish]NNNNMMMM D YYYY; [~jewish]NN MMMM D YYYY; [~jewish]NN D MMMM YYYY; [~jewish]D MMMM YYYY; [~jewish]MMMM D YYYY; [~jewish]MMMM YYYY - Date formats working properly are: M/D/YY; MM/DD/YY; MMM D, YY; MM-DD; YY-MM-DD; MM/YY; MMM DD; MMMM; WW; [~jewish]D MMMM; [~jewish]MMMM D; [~jewish]MMMM **Steps to reproduce: 1. Create a new Calc sheet 2. Write down a date separating month, day, year by slashes like 03/01/2012 3. Go to Format>>Cells (or press ctrl+1) 4. In Numbers tab, choose Date from Category and then try the date formats mentioned as yielding ### in the Problem Description section. **Current behavior: Dates are displayed as ### **Expected behavior: To display dates in the chosen formats **Platform (if different from the browser): Ubuntu 12.04 **Note: LO version is LibreOffice 3.5.5.2 Build ID: 350m1(Build:2) installed using “LibreOffice Packaging” team PPA @ https://launchpad.net/~libreoffice/+archive/ppa **Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux i686; rv:13.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/13.0.1
User error, not a bug! @enigma_pentagram@yahoo.com: "###" simply shows that the column is too narrow, will be replaced by correct Date information when you increase column width.
(In reply to comment #1) > User error, not a bug! > > @enigma_pentagram@yahoo.com: > "###" simply shows that the column is too narrow, will be replaced by correct > Date information when you increase column width. It's not that apparent to notice indeed. So, I think the proper behavior should be displaying part of the date as an indication that the rest is hidden due to space limitation or popping out a message to tell the user that s/he needs to increase the width/length of the cell to display its content.
I agree with comment #2 - the current behaviour is not user friendly. Displaying ### doesn't make it obvious that the column is too narrow, it indicates that there is a problem with the data. Considering that ### is what is used when an incorrect formula is entered, it's more likely that the user will attempt to fix the data rather than expanding the column. Why does the date behave differently from other data types in the spreadsheet? Wouldn't visual consistency be more beneficial to the user experience?