Date formatting in Numbers on Mac

How can I globally change the date format to be dd/mm/yyyy
Because by default it seems to be the American way: mm/dd/yyyy.
I know how to change the cell format to display the date however i want it to, but how do i change the way numbers recognizes what i type into a cell?
So when I type into a cell 01/12/2013, it recognizes it as the 12th of january, but I want it to recognize it as 1st of december. How do i change that.

rudo.ba said:

System preferences / Language & Text / Region
(set your region, Numbers will respect this setting)

Click to expand...

Ok, this works, but still, default when open numbers and type in 05/01/13 it recognizes it as the 1st of may 2013. I then have to go to inspector and change the cell format to recognize it as the 5th of january.
Is there any way to set a default date format, not to have to change it every time i open it?

rudo.ba said:

Hmm, for me this works. It is also impossible in my version of Numbers 2.3 to exchange months and days in cell inspector, i can just choose different notation like 5-jan or 5-jan-13 and so. Is your order of items in Dates part of Region System preferences correct (day/month/year)?

https://copy.com/uh4UTMIgO8TzzCN4/dates.jpg

If not, set correct region or click on Customize and sort them to day/month/year manually.

Click to expand...

I uploaded 2 screenshots: first one showing my Regional settings and second one showing what i get in Numbers when i open a blank document and type 05/01/13 in a cell. I get May1 2013 =(

rudo.ba said:

You see the difference?

Image

Click to expand...

its weird. when i have Custom set in the regional settings i get the problem with the dates in Numbers, when i set it to United Kingdom, for example, the settings stay exactly the same just the Region says United Kingdom instead of Custom, i don't get the problem anymore. Thanks for the help!