I've always figured typing numeric dates is faster than clicking through calendar forms, but an email from Manoj Vijayan pointed out that later months can have you counting on your fingers. Thus was born the month abbreviation feature. Examples:

French:     jan,fév,mar,avr,mai,jun,jul,aoû,sep,oct,nov,déc
German:     jan,feb,mrz,apr,mai,jun,jul,aug,sep,okt,nov,dez
Portuguese: jan,fev,mar,abr,mai,jun,jul,ago,set,out,nov,dez
Spanish:    ene,feb,mar,abr,may,jun,jul,ago,sep,oct,nov,dic
Swedish:    jan,feb,mar,apr,maj,jun,jul,aug,sep,okt,nov,dec
US / UK:    jan,feb,mar,apr,may,jun,jul,aug,sep,oct,nov,dec

DO NOT USE A DATE SEPARATOR, just type "jan2" (or "2jan"). Abbreviations work for events which require just a month or both a month and a day. All abbreviations use a three-letter format and are taken from your computer's system settings, so if your computer uses accented letters such as é or û in listing your months, you'll need to type them that way as well. French, Finnish and Uzbek Latin users will notice small accomodations ("juin" = "jun", "iyun" = "iyn") to fit the three letter format.