Text variable: metadata caption creation date in long date format

[Lauren_mint]

Hello community,

Since I last used text variable > metadata caption > creation date, the format has changed from long date to short. As has previously been discussed in this thread: https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/changing-date-format-in-captions/m-p/10283183#M1...  the date format is determined by the Mac OS system settings. Unfortunately, Apple have removed the advanced date format options from system settings (presumably in the Ventura update), and I can no longer select a long date format.

What was:

Is now:

I tried changing my .plist preferences file, as per this article:

https://www.caseyliss.com/2022/11/14/ventura-date-formats

...but just screwed things up further.

Any suggestions? My only other thought was to convert all live captions to plain text and then run a script to convert short date format to long (but then the captions won't update if I make changes, which isn't ideal).

Feature request — add date format to metadata captions, like we have available on the "Creation Date" variable.

[Manan Joshi]

Hi @Lauren_mint,

Feature requests are better submitted at the following link

https://indesign.uservoice.com

These are peer to peer forums with minimal visits from Adobe employees. However, the link I gave is the place Adobe engineering montiors so if you post a request which garners good support via upvotes there is a better chance of it catching the attention of Adobe project managers.

After making the post, share its URL here as well so that someone in need of a similiar solution can upvote it.

-Manan

[brian_p_dts]

You could write something in Photoshop or Bridge that changes the creation date meta info to the format you want. Could even do it theoretically in InDesign using BridgeTalk. 

[琥珀 猫太郎]

I tried to change the metadata information only in InDesign using ExtendScript.
The DateCreated information is formatted and written to Headline.

#target "indesign"
if(!Window.confirm("""Change the metadata of the linked image.
Write DateCreated information in Headline by changing the month to English notation.
DateCreated:  2023-01-01 > Headline:  1 January 2023""")){ exit(); }
if (ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript == undefined) {
    ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript = new ExternalObject("lib:AdobeXMPScript");
}
for (var i = 0; app.activeDocument.links.count() > i; i++) {
    if (!app.activeDocument.links.item(i).parent instanceof Image) { continue; }
    if (app.activeDocument.links.item(i).status == LinkStatus.LINK_MISSING) { continue; }
    var myXmpFile = new XMPFile(app.activeDocument.links.item(i).filePath, XMPConst.UNKNOWN, XMPConst.OPEN_FOR_UPDATE);
    var myXmp = myXmpFile.getXMP();
    { // Get DateCreated namespace
        var myXmpIterator = myXmp.iterator();
        var myXMPProperty = myXmpIterator.next();
        var myHeadlineNameSpace = undefined;
        while (myXMPProperty) {
            if ((/:DateCreated/).test(myXMPProperty.path)) {
                myHeadlineNameSpace = myXMPProperty.namespace;
                break;
            }
            myXMPProperty = myXmpIterator.next();
        }
    }
    if (myHeadlineNameSpace != undefined) {
        { // Get and format DateCreated
            if ((/^\d{4}\-\d{2}-\d{2}/).test(myXmp.getProperty(myHeadlineNameSpace, "DateCreated").toString())) {
                var myMatchValue = myXmp.getProperty(myHeadlineNameSpace, "DateCreated").toString().match(/\d+/g);
                var myCreateDate = myMatchValue[2].match(/[1-3]\d|(?<=0)\d/) + " ";
                switch (myMatchValue[1]) {
                    case '01':
                        myCreateDate += "January";
                        break;
                    case '02':
                        myCreateDate += "February";
                        break;
                    case '03':
                        myCreateDate += "March";
                        break;
                    case '04':
                        myCreateDate += "April";
                        break;
                    case '05':
                        myCreateDate += "May";
                        break;
                    case '06':
                        myCreateDate += "June";
                        break;
                    case '07':
                        myCreateDate += "July";
                        break;
                    case '08':
                        myCreateDate += "August";
                        break;
                    case '09':
                        myCreateDate += "September";
                        break;
                    case '10':
                        myCreateDate += "October";
                        break;
                    case '11':
                        myCreateDate += "November";
                        break;
                    case '12':
                        myCreateDate += "December";
                        break;
                }
                myCreateDate += " " + myMatchValue[0];
            }
        }
        myXmp.setProperty(myHeadlineNameSpace, "Headline", myCreateDate);
        if (myXmpFile.canPutXMP(myXmp)) { myXmpFile.putXMP(myXmp); }  // Write updated metadata into the file
    }
    myXmpFile.closeFile(XMPConst.CLOSE_UPDATE_SAFELY);
}

Is it possible to write simple character information to CreateDate?
It seems to accept only XMPDateTime object.