Which start and end dates are you referring to?
Are these default attributes? Or attributes that you created?

I created a template for diary/journal use and I am using custom date formats that show something like "Monday, January 21, 2008 9:41 AM".

To do this:
- I created a new attribute called "date" (you can name it whatever you want though) and set its type as "string."
- Then I created a new prototype note and set "date" as a key attribute.
- Finally, I added to the rules of this prototype "$Date=(format($Created, "W, MM d, y H:mm p"))"

Now whenever I create a new note based on that prototype, my "Date" attribute is takes the "Created" value into whatever format I specify.

See the Tinderbox Manual page 274 in Appendix 5 on specifying your own date format.

Not sure if this answers your question, but hopefully it'll at least give you some hints

Attribute names are case sensitive, in Allan post I suspect the attribute is "Date" not "date" thoughout.

I've just run out the demo on a UK system and all works.

To create an attribute called "Date":

• Open the Attributes panel (Cmd+2)
• If the User tab of the panel is not active, click it.
• Click the 'Create' button, an Attribute dialog opens.
• In the 'name' box, type 'Date'.
• click the 'type' pop-up and select 'date'
• Leave the 'default value' box empty (FWIW it internally defaults to 'never').
• Click 'OK'. Your new attribute has been created.

Where in TB are you seeing the dates as 'wrong'? If it is in a note's Key Attributes listing, then you can't alter that.

On a UK system any date-type attributes are shown in Key Attributes using (d)d/(m)m/yy hh:mm which doesn't actually follow the UK short data setting (of dd/mm/yyyy) although my understanding is (was!) that TB uses the host system's short date setting for displaying dates.

Odd, in testing (UK setting OS 10.4.11, TB v4.1) I've input a date to a date-type attribute called MyDate with the string "5 Sep 1240 15:45". As a note key attribute MyDate displays "5/9/40 15:45"
The note's Rule sets string attribute called TrueDate:
     TrueDate=format($MyDate,"D/M0/y h:mm")
I see "31/07/1904 16:09" in the key attributes display.
However, I should see "05/09/1240 15:45"

OK, even if there's currently something odd going on with the display of dates inside TB, the timeline export works fine - or does for me. If you're porblem is with the long date format seen in the event info boxes in the timeline, then you want to change the date format set in the 'event' template where the "*" format string outputs RFC 822 styled date/time strings, e.g. ^get(end,"*"). BUT... bear in mind this date is used both for display in the right timeline location (so I believe) as well as for display in the event's screen popup. If you export a date for screen reading that can't be parsed to a valid Javascript date then the timeline display may fail.  you may need to dive into the Timeline project's Javascript (i.e. not the stub code in the TBX). My hunch is you're safe as long as your chosen format for screen display can create a valid Javascript date object; luckily that's easily tested as a standalone JS test.

[post edit] Further to the above re allowable date formats, the Dinosaur example over at the SIMILE site uses plain numbers for 'start' and 'end' that are interpreted as 'MA' units (millions of years?). To do similar you would need to tweak the Timeline initiation JS code in the sample TBX (note name = "/boilerplate/script"), but it indicates a lot of customisation can be done!

Despite my many thanks to Mark Anderson, I don't want to have to jump hoops, primarily because I want to use the notes/entries in my tbx file to (a) export to Timeline, but also (b) use the information *as is* in tinderbox, and perhaps then export that map view using Nate Matias' webviewer. As such, the dates have to be correct, uniform, and with as little fiddling as possible. I guess I'll wait to see how the next release goes. Thanks again.