Autotext - dates

  • Thread starter Thread starter vagabond
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vagabond

A recurring theme, I see from the archives.

I can almost get this to work as I would like, but not quite...

In Word 2003, if I type today's date (ie not just any date) I get the correct autotext prompt. eg

Type "20 d" and I'm prompter to press enter for "20 December 2003"

Great, but this only works when my language is set to English (US). I'm in the UK.

If I change languages to English (UK), typing "20 d" gives a prompt for "20 Dec. 2003"

Not great. Even if I set my preferred format as default in "Insert -> Date and Time"
I am still forced to use an abbreviated month.

Obviously, changing the language to US has certain drawbacks. Other machine settings (System Locale, Input Locale) are set to English (United Kingdom).

Does someone in Microsoft think that only Americans use the format 20 December 2003 and only Brits 20 Dec. 2003?


john
 
This might have to do with your Regional Settings. Click "START",
"Settings", "Control Panel". Double click the "Regional" option and see if
you can change it there. Then all programs that use dates (Like Word and
Excel) will take on this format.

Bill Foley
www.pttinc.com
A recurring theme, I see from the archives.

I can almost get this to work as I would like, but not quite...

In Word 2003, if I type today's date (ie not just any date) I get the
correct autotext prompt. eg

Type "20 d" and I'm prompter to press enter for "20 December 2003"

Great, but this only works when my language is set to English (US). I'm in
the UK.

If I change languages to English (UK), typing "20 d" gives a prompt for "20
Dec. 2003"

Not great. Even if I set my preferred format as default in "Insert -> Date
and Time"
I am still forced to use an abbreviated month.

Obviously, changing the language to US has certain drawbacks. Other machine
settings (System Locale, Input Locale) are set to English (United Kingdom).

Does someone in Microsoft think that only Americans use the format 20
December 2003 and only Brits 20 Dec. 2003?


john
 
Thanks Bill, but like I said, both locales are set correctly.

Alt-shift-D works fine - so why not auto?

john
 
Actually I thought Americans used December 20, 2003 ;)
Is this an issue or merely a quirk of programming? There are so many more
convenient ways to insert the date that I wonder why you are concerned. Why
not simply save a CreateDate field {CreateDate \@ "d MMMM yyyy"} as a
formatted autocorrect entry for - say - 'dat', and type dat in the document
to insert the creation date of the document, which for a new document will
be the current date .... or ..... you could save the same as an autotect
entry and assign a keystroke combination or toolbar button .... or .... if
you want to incorporate ordinals, you will need a combination of fields eg
{DATE \@ "d" \* Ordinal \*charformat} {DATE \@ "MMMM yyyy" \*charformat}
saved to an autotext entry called 'Date' in association with the macro
following which superscripts the ordinal and converts the field to text. Add
this macro to a toolbar button or keyboard shortcut.

Sub InsertFormattedDate()
NormalTemplate.AutoTextEntries("Date").Insert Where:=Selection.Range
Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdLine, Extend:=wdExtend
With Options
.AutoFormatReplaceOrdinals = True
End With
Selection.Range.Fields.Update
Selection.Range.AutoFormat
Selection.Fields.Unlink
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1
End Sub


--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP
E-mail (e-mail address removed)
Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>
 
Thanks, this isn't an issue - I just wanted it to work correctly :)

Think I've got it working now using "date" (because it's four characters long). However, not working _quite_ as expected.

If I create a doc and type "date" I get today's date (21 December 2003). If I save this doc and set the system date back a day and reopen it still shows 21 December 2003. If I then type "date" it inserts 21 December 2003 (expected 20 December 2003).

Similarly, if I create a new doc, insert date, save it and reset system date to correct date and then open it shows 20 December 2003. A new "date" autotext entry still gives 20 December 2003.

So this wouldn't be useful for those previous letters which I reuse as quick templates.

The field which Word creates is "{CREATEDATE \@ "dd MMMM yyyy" \* MERGEFORMAT }

Like I said, not an issue, but thanks for your help.

Cheers

john
 
Instead of using the letters as quick templates, remove the text and save
them as proper templates.
Createdate will always show the date the document was created.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP
E-mail (e-mail address removed)
Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>
 
Even if you use an existing document as a template, if you Save As, the
CreateDate field will be correct when fields are updated.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
I was thinking more of the next question about the important letter that was
over-written and lost :)

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP
E-mail (e-mail address removed)
Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>
 
This can be avoided by using the New from Existing Document option in the
New Documents task pane of Word 2002 and above. And I ought to remember
this, as I do reuse a lot of documents of a specific type (letters from a
client to a bajillion other people; I don't want to add these people to any
address book, so I just open a previous letter that contains the address).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
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