Todays date format in invoice

[prl]

On 25/01/12 02:40, Derek Atkins wrote:
> Hi,
>
> erik_h<erik.haa at gmail.com>  writes:
>
>> When I make a new invoice there are several dates that comes up.
>> Invoice date, due date and dates for all lines in the invoice.
>> They are fine and in accordance with my locale settings.
>>
>> However "todays date" - which probably is the printing date - comes up with
>> another format: %B %#d, %Y
>> (I assume this is a US format)
> No, it's a more formal format, "<Month Name>  <Day>, Year".  E.g.,
> January 24, 2012.  I don't think this is specifically US Centric.
>
My Australian bank statements are headed Statement Date: 31 December 
2001. Such dates are spoken as "thirty-first of December, two thousand 
and eleven". They are also the date format I have on business letters, 
etc. Very formal (especially legal) documents, e.g. my will, normally 
use a full form like "Dated the 31st day of December, 2011".

 From the Australian Government Publishing Service's "Style Manual for 
Authors, Editors and Printers" (1990):
"10.43: When a date is given in full, the following form should be used:
10 September 1987

This form is completely unambiguous, requires no punctuation and is 
logical (proceeding from the day to the month to the year). It is 
typographically superior to such forms as September 10, 1987 and 10th 
September, 1987, because it avoids the confusion of adjacent numbers (as 
in the first example), and requires fewer keystrokes."

I think that both the January 24, 2012 order of writing dates and of 
saying them is principally non-North America, though what I would see as 
a North Americanism (December 31, 2011) is gaining currency here.

Peter