It’s difficult to customize this right from your theme, and I suspect that’s why I was unable to locate any flexible solutions through the Wordpress forums or Google. The easiest way is to edit the original function itself. Be warned: new Wordpress installations will overwrite this fix.

Locate general-template.php

Open the wp-includes folder from the root of your Wordpress install. Open the file general-template.php with a text editor and locate the wp_get_archives function. Find the following line:
 

820
821

$text = sprintf(__('%1$s %2$d'), $wp_locale->get_month($arcresult->month), $arcresult->year);
//

In Wordpress 2.8.4 this is on line 820. The default date format is the full textual representation of the month and the full year. Example: January 2009.

Alternative Date Formats

Short textual representation of month

Example: Jan 2009

820
821

$text = sprintf(__('%1$s %2$d'), $wp_locale->get_month_abbrev($wp_locale->get_month($arcresult->month)), $arcresult->year);
//

Numeric representation of month with leading zero

Example: 01 2009

820
821

$text = sprintf(__('%1$s %2$d'), zeroise($arcresult->month, 2), $arcresult->year);
//

Numeric representation of month, no leading zero

Example: 1 2009

820
821

$text = sprintf(__('%1$d %2$d'), $arcresult->month, $arcresult->year);
//

Two digit representation of year

Example: January 09

820
821

$text = sprintf(__('%1$s %2$s'), $wp_locale->get_month($arcresult->month), substr($arcresult->year, 2));
//

Adding Flourishes and Changing Order

Additional formatting can be applied by just changing ‘%1$s %2$d’ in that line, where %1$s represents the month and %2$d represents the year.

Punctuation between month and year

These examples use a slash. Replace with dot or dash as desired.

Example: 01/2009

820
821

$text = sprintf(__('%1$s/%2$d'), zeroise($arcresult->month, 2), $arcresult->year);
//

Example: 01/09

820
821

$text = sprintf(__('%1$s/%2$d'), zeroise($arcresult->month, 2), substr($arcresult->year, 2));
//

Abbreviated Year

Example: January ‘09

820
821

$text = sprintf(__('%1$s /'%2$s'), $wp_locale->get_month($arcresult->month), substr($arcresult->year, 2));
//

Reversed Month and Year

Example: 2009 January

820
821

$text = sprintf(__('%2$d %1$s'), $wp_locale->get_month($arcresult->month), $arcresult->year);
//

Mix, Match, Enjoy!

There are more combinations than I can reasonably post here, but I hope this helps you figure out how to get the exact date format you want.

For two days of work, I wasn’t particularly displeased. I was impressed with the ease with which one can build a Wordpress theme, proud of myself for having done so with swiftness, and satisfied with the visual component of the design.

Queue the Querulousness

As time wore on, however, the flaws became increasingly apparent—I’d taken too many shortcuts, hadn’t done enough planning, left out details. I eventually became so unhappy with the site I didn’t want to update for fear new visitors would recognize these doofy indiscretions. Keetee just didn’t meet my standards for design, and my desire to use it gave way to evanescence.

With a steady few hundred hits a day, I kept it running so people could benefit from old articles. One of my readers, Yopladas, sent me an e-mail in May asking for updates. “Nah,” I responded, “Keetee is dead.” Indeed.

Rekindling Keetee

When summer began, I resolved to reform my disappointing brainchild. I cooked up a new design that retained some of the same visual elements in the spirit of realignment.

There are a number of things that are very dull about this version, but it was a starting point. I let it simmer for a few weeks, then kicked off a week-long sprint of planning, designing, and coding to bring the design up to par.

Here are a few things I think I did right:

1. Improved Spacing

It’s important to have a big-picture view when you’re styling dynamic content. The first time around I didn’t do enough planning, created a lot of delicately interdependent styling, and ended up using ghetto spacing workarounds because of it.

2. Details, Details, Details

I spent a lot of time on the little things. There are the literal little things like accents, icons, and decorative images, but I’ve also very carefully positioned the layout. Everything is on a grid, the main containers follow the rule of thirds, and a couple special areas pull proportions from the golden ratio. By mocking up all the details first, there was little experimentation to do when it came down to the code.

3. No Half-Assing

Having been new to Wordpress the first time around, there were naturally things I wasn’t sure how to do. There were several cases where I settled for the default look or setting rather than going the extra mile. This time I spared no expense, ensuring everything looks and works precisely as planned.

I Hope You Like It

I spent a full workweek on this new design, so believe me when I say it’s a labor of love! I hope you like my final product. Drop a comment and let me know what you think.