The "Settings" window
To display the Settings window, click the Settings button on the Pop-up Calendar ribbon tab in Excel. The Settings window is where you can control how the pop-up calendar works for you.
| Excel Version | Settings Window |
|---|---|
| Excel 2019 / Microsoft 365 (Windows 11) | The "Date Picker" Page  The "Calendar" Page  |
| Excel 2013 (Windows 10) (Versions prior to 8.18) |  |
| Excel 2003 (Windows XP) (Versions prior to 8.18) |  |
When to Display In-Cell Button
By default, the in-cell icon button is displayed automatically when you click a cell, which is:
- Formatted as a date. To set the format of a cell in Excel, right-click the cell and choose Format Cells. On the Number tab, choose Date in the Category list, and then choose a proper date format in the Type list.
- Filled with a date-like value. For example, if a cell is formatted as "General" but has a date-like value of "September 1, 2006", Pop-up Excel Calendar will display the in-cell icon button when you click the cell.
- Under a cell with a date value or format in it. For example, if a cell has a "General" format and its value is empty, Pop-up Excel Calendar can still display the in-cell icon button if the cell on top of it has a date value or format.
- Underneath a cell that has some form of the word "date" in it.
You can enable or disable the above options in the Settings window, which can be opened by clicking the Settings button on the Pop-up Excel Calendar toolbar or clicking the Settings button on the pop-up calendar window.
"Date" Text
If the 'Cell underneath a cell that has some form of the word "date" in it' option on the Settings window is checked, you can have the calendar activated if the cell above it contains a special word. The special word list can be set by clicking the Set 'Date' Text button on the Settings window. By default, the special word list contains the text labels in more than 50 languages that are translated from the English word Date.
Note that depending on your Windows configurations, some text labels on the "Set Date Text" dialog box may be shown as small empty blocks. This is normal, and it does not affect the activation of the calendar.
Installation Mode
In Excel 2013 and later versions, the classic menu- and toolbar-based user interface is replaced by a ribbon-based new user interface. Pop-up Excel Calendar can be installed as either a separate tab, "Pop-up Calendar", in the ribbon or as a group in the standard Insert tab. You can change the installation mode by choosing the corresponding option in the "Install this program as" field on the Settings window (See the figure above).
Setting the Default Date Format
If the target cell is not formatted as a date, you can choose to have Pop-up Excel Calendar set a date format automatically. This option can be enabled or disabled in the Settings window, which can be opened by clicking the Settings button on the Pop-up Excel Calendar toolbar or clicking the Settings button on the pop-up calendar window.
To specify the default date format, enter a format string in the box underneath the Apply the following date format if the target cell is not formatted as a date checkbox.
A date format string is constructed with format codes, which describe how you want to display the date. For example, if your default date format is "mm/dd/yyyy", "September 1, 2018" will be formatted as "09/01/2018". The following tables show you all the valid codes that you can use in the date format string.
| To display | Use this code |
|---|---|
| Months as 1–12 | m |
| Months as 01–12 | mm |
| Months as Jan–Dec | mmm |
| Months as January–December | mmmm |
| Days as 1–31 | d |
| Days as 01–31 | dd |
| Years as 00–99 | yy |
| Years as 1900–9999 | yyyy |
In addition to any valid combinations of the above format codes, you can also enter "dddd" and "ddd" as the date format string.
| To display | Use this format string |
|---|---|
| Full day of the week name e.g. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, ... | dddd |
| 3-letter day of the week name abbreviation e.g., Mon, Tue, Wed, ... | ddd |
Displaying the Calendar Automatically
By default, Pop-up Excel Calendar displays an in-cell icon button when you click a date cell. You need to click the in-cell icon button to open the calendar, on which you click to select the date value.
The "Display calendar automatically" option on the Settings window saves one click by displaying the calendar automatically. If you check this option, the calendar is displayed automatically along with the in-cell icon button whenever you click a date cell.
Date Can Contain Time
The option "Date can contain time" allows you to specify whether Pop-up Excel Calendar works for dates or formats that contain time. If this option is checked, a date containing a time part will be seen as a normal date, and the time part will be ignored. This option is unchecked by default.
For example, if a cell value is "December 3, 2002, 16:17:18" and the "Date can contain time" option is checked, when you click the cell, the calendar appears. If you uncheck the option, the calendar won't appear when you click the cell.
Week Numbers
In the "Week Numbers" section, there are two options: "Show week numbers", and "First day of week". In the previous version of this app, there was an option for "ISO week number" in the "Week number" section. If it is checked, the week containing the first Thursday of the year is the first week of the year. Many countries follow the ISO 8601 standard for week numbers (for instance, France, Denmark, and most of Europe). Starting with version 8.18, the "ISO week number" option was removed. Now the app uses the Windows control panel settings.
