Excel Regional Format Settings

Regional Format Settings

Excel provides regional formatting settings for different languages and styles of presenting information.

Regional settings affects a number of things, like:

Formula delimiters are the symbols used to separate arguments in a function.

The most common symbols are comma , and semicolon ;

For example, the English regional language setting uses commas:

=AND([logical1], [logical2], ...)

While German regional language settings uses semicolons:

=AND([logical1]; [logical2]; ...)

Here are the date, decimal number, and formula delimiters shown with English (US) settings:

Here are the date, decimal number, and formula delimiters shown with German settings:

Notice that the English (US) formatting uses month/day/year and the German formatting uses day.month.year for calendar dates.

The English (US) formatting also uses a period (.) for the decimal symbol and the German formatting uses a comma (,).

Note: Changing the regional format settings will automatically convert any existing values and formulas in your spreadsheet.

Changing Regional Format Settings is accessed in the options part of the File menu:

Selecting this option will open a dialog box where you can choose your preferred regional language settings: