Customizing the SHORT time format?

re: Customizing the SHORT time format?

Ivan Petrov — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 23:46:22 GMT

Hi Michael.

Thank You for the professional answer.

I'm just curious, would some day/is somebody planning to be added a drop-down box on the Time tab in

Customize Regional Options, for customizing the SHORT time format? ... because if we take for example the

Date tab, there we can customize both the Short date and the Long date format! I think that it's logically

in the Time tab the things to be the same! ...
... Another interesting idea is to be added a tab named (for instance) 'Calendar', in which the user can

customize the Short and Long names of the Months and/or the Weekdays, the Calendar type ...
... Also there're some other elements from a Locale, which can be added to the existing tabs in Customize

Regional Options to be customizible, like: in the Currency tab - the Native currency name, the English

currency name, the International currency symbol and so on ... ; I think that Customize Regional Options

must be revised from that viewpoint - the viewpoint as many things as possible to be customized! I think the

users would like it ;-) ...
... And here is a very interesting idea of mine ;-). Yesterday, I have opened the Customize Regional Options

window and was looking it as always and then in my mind comes the following idea:
Custom Regional Options SCHEMES (profiles): That means that the user can save/load Custom Regional Options

in/from files. I think that this is idea with great potential!

Regards,
Ivan.

re: Customizing the SHORT time format?

Michael S. Kaplan — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 00:08:49 GMT

Hello Ivan,

Actually, you will want to be looking into custom cultures (which become custom locales n Vista) to have that level of customization, as it is not really feasible to expand Regional Options in the way you are indicating....

re: Customizing the SHORT time format?

Ivan Petrov — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 00:56:48 GMT

Ok Michael, but I really think that the user must have the possibility to customize the SHORT time format through Customize Regional Options window!
So would some day/is somebody planning to be added that future?

Regards,
Ivan.

re: Customizing the SHORT time format?

Michael S. Kaplan — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 01:28:02 GMT

I can forward on the feedback. Like I said, we are not really invested as heavily in these things that other people did since it usually did not involve the same amount of homework that we do on features....

Since most applications will not use it (more unmanaged than managed) and thus most users will never see the results of the change, it might be more confusing to add it.

Most importantly, since the majority of users never even lunch our UI at all (let alone the customization UI), the number if people who actually meet all the criteria for this to be useful would likely all fit in the same minivan (with room left over for a cooler to hold the beer!).

re: Customizing the SHORT time format?

Ivan Petrov — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 01:49:14 GMT

Ok, but I think I'm right and I'm writing you about this 'SHORT time format' issue, because I think that this future must be in Customize Regional Options and because I think everybody in Microsoft think that Vista must be better than every released Windows version! As I know, there is great enthusiasm inside Microsoft this thing to happen! ;-)

Regards,
Ivan.

re: Customizing the SHORT time format?

Ivan Petrov — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 21:42:35 GMT

Hi Michael.

Merry Christmas!

My question was inspired by this:

If we open an instance of Windows Explorer, and then we choose Details from the Views menu, then we see Name, Size, Type and Date Modified columns. The 'Date Modified' column displays the Date (in SHORT Date format) and the Time (in SHORT Time format) when the Folder or the File was Modified. So, my wish is to Customize SHORT Time format in that manner to be displayed like I want in the 'Date Modified' column in Windows Explorer, or if you want - the Time in the system tray (which is again in SHORT Time format).

Regards,
Ivan.

re: Customizing the SHORT time format?

Michael S. Kaplan — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 23:06:03 GMT

Hello Ivan,

Merry Christmas to you, and happy holidays and so on....

You are mistaken on both points -- both use the LONG TIME, or as we knoe it in Windows, THE TIME. The Short Time you see has absolutely nothing to do with anything in Windows. If you want to customize times in Windows, then it is STIMEFORMAT that you mudt modify.

Sorry, but the only argument in your favor on this one is the one you already mentioned. :-)

re: Customizing the SHORT time format?

Ivan Petrov — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 00:20:56 GMT

Hello Michael.

Thank you for the quick answer.

It seems you're right again ;-)

I want to explain you a little bit more about what I want to do and what bothers me:

Thne main idea is to customize the Windows time format in conformity with Bulgarian national standard fo time formating. So I make the following steps:
Regional and Language Options > Customize (button)=>Customize Regional Options > Time (tab),
then in the time format dropdown box I'm typing the following:

HH:mm:ss 'ч.'

where "ч." is abbreviation from 'часа' which means 'hour', which is near by sense the English "o'clock". Anyway, to this point everything goes ok!After clicking 2 time OK we have the new user defined Time format. And it's working! For example if I right click on a file in Windows Explorer and choose 'Properties' from the shortcut menu, then in the General tab in the Properties window all the times (Created, Modified, Accessed) are displayed correctly, exactly I want! For example:

25 Ноември 2005 г., 22:12:04 ч.

But, in Windows Explorer with Details switchen on from the Views menu, in the 'Date Modified' column for the same file we can see the following:

25 Ноември 2005 г., 22:12

And here is the problem. I want to see this 'ч.' after the time, but I can't ;-(
I expect to see the following:

25 Ноември 2005 г., 22:12 ч.

Please, provide some guidelines what to do to make this happen!

Best wishes,
Ivan.

re: Customizing the SHORT time format?

Michael S. Kaplan — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 00:48:39 GMT

In Windows and the .NET Framework both, the application always has the last say in what will show up. In this case it looks like Explorer is making a choice that is based more on the fact that there are no AP/PM markers than the literal format.

So what happens if you put that 'ч.' in for the AM/PM markers and a 't' in the long time format? When I do that, I think I get exactly what you are looking for here....

re: Customizing the SHORT time format?

Ivan Petrov — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 01:12:55 GMT

Ahaaaa, thank you Michael.
Milion thanks!

This is my Christmas gift from GIFT (I mean you Michael ;-) )

I'm very happy now ;-)

See you.

Regards,
Ivan.

We do seem to be short on time...

Sorting It All Out — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 16:44:23 GMT

Walter asks:

Hi,
It seems the time format in Control Panel Regional and Language Options is only...

Compatibility is inconsistent; consistency is not compatible...

Sorting It All Out — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 01:42:19 GMT

There are times that no matter what we do with a particular behavior at Microsoft, there will be somebody,

I see LONG TIME and SHORT TIME; where are SHORTER TIME and SHORTEST TIME?

Sorting it all Out — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:23:05 GMT

The question was deceptively simple: Hi, How can convert a DateTime to culture specific ShortDateTime