Date formats and ambiguous dates

Understand the principle

A numeric date can express different calendar dates under different regional conventions. Avellio can supply pattern and locale evidence; it cannot establish the intended event date. An editorial format change must preserve meaning.

Look in Typography. The publication concept and a plugin issue identifier are related, but are not interchangeable.

Compare the intent, not only the characters

Pattern to review

03/04/2026

Possible editorial outcome

A date whose intended meaning and publication convention are clear.

Schematic teaching example, not a plugin screenshot or a promise of automatic correction.

Review it in Avellio 2.0

Read the original source, resolved locale and surrounding context. Compare genuinely comparable dates in the publication. Choose an unambiguous house style and review month/day order deliberately before editing. Read Found and Suggested when offered, or Review in context. Check Text locale; the recommendation itself changes no text. After an intentional manual edit, inspect again.

Date formatDATE_FORMAT

Use the selected finding’s actual evidence and offered actions. If no suitable supported action exists, make a justified manual decision in InDesign or retain the occurrence. After an edit, inspect again and check nearby composition.

Read the plugin recommendation

Date format

Check the intended day, month and year, then use a consistent date convention for the text language.

A locale date-order finding can propose a reordered date only when its meaning is unambiguous, its calendar values are valid and its year has four digits. The detected slash or dot separator is retained. Ambiguous dates, unknown locale and findings based only on an observed pattern receive advice without a guessed replacement.

Read-only advice: verify meaning and locale, edit deliberately when justified, then inspect again.

When the difference can be intentional

Quoted foreign dates, identifiers, data exports and historical source preservation can intentionally retain a different format.

What should I verify after deciding?

Preserve meaning and the intended design. If you edited the document, obtain fresh results for the intended scope and policy. If you kept the occurrence, record a supported review decision when useful. A smaller filtered count is not proof of a repair.