Beyond Borders: Web Globalization Strategies

2/6/02 OR 6/2/02?

In the U.K., 2/6/02 means June 2, 2002, but in the U.S., it means February 6, 2002— the source of immeasurable international confusion over the years. What makes notation particularly confusing is that a country can have more than one acceptable standard. In the U.S., you might see a date represented as 2/6/02; February 6, 2002; or even 2-6-2002. Fortunately, operating systems have grown increasingly sophisticated at dealing with notation issues. To see how Office XP tackles notation, go to Control Panel, Regions and Languages. Figure F.1 illustrates how notation is changed based on different locales.

Figure F.1. Adjusting regional preferences in Microsoft Office XP.

Table F.1 includes a selection of locales from Microsoft ...