hi frenchman.
Quote:It is not a hack.
Add only a plugin into Smarty and use templates manager.
The plugin is ryus_date. (Ryuji's work)

download from here
http://ryus.biz/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?cid=3&lid=13

I translated into English
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Description:

This is a filtering plugin for Smarty.
This plugin can change the format of date, and/or can add "NEW".

First of all, download and extract the archive, and you'll get modifier.ryus_date.php.
Put modifier.ryus_date.php into class/smarty/plugins/


Usage:
This modifier can use variables assigned date or datetime in Template.

eg) if datetime is assigned in $topic.date:
-<{$topic.date|ryus_date}>
--No format is changed. Add "NEW" mark.
-<{$topic.date|ryus_date:"M"}>
--The datetime format is displayed like formatTimestamp( "M" )
-<{$topic.date|ryus_date:"S"}>
--The datetime format is displayed like formatTimestamp( "S" )
-<{$topic.date|ryus_date:"new"}>
--No datetime is not displayed, but shows only "NEW" mark.
-<{$topic.date|ryus_date:"Y-m-d"}>
--The datetime format is displayed like date( "Y-m-d" ). "NEW" mark is added.
-<{$topic.date|ryus_date:"j.n.Y":false}>
--The datetime format is displayed like date( "j.n.Y" ). "NEW" mark is not added.