Inserting todays date in a field already formatted for date

[Guest]

As of Jan 1, 2006 I can no longer use keyboard shortcut "CTRL+ :" (control +
semi colon) to insert todays date in a field. Field name Regs Date 2005, up
to and including Dec 31, 2005 it worked great, once the New year came in when
I push both keys I get the date format ___/___/___ and the cursor comes up
in the second section, but no date of any kind. I tried changing the date on
the machine to Dec 2005 and low and behold it works correctly again, but the
minute th computer is in January 2006, it will not wotk.

Who can help correct this situation??

 

[Allen Browne]

Ah: you have an Input Mask defined for the field?

Especially for date/fields those things are about as useful as a soluble
fish.

Open your table in design view, and remove the input mask from the field in
the table. Then open your form in design view, and remove the input mask
from the properties of the text box.

Once the input mask is gone, the shortcut should work for you.

 

[Joseph Meehan]

As of Jan 1, 2006 I can no longer use keyboard shortcut "CTRL+ :"
(control + semi colon) to insert todays date in a field. Field name
Regs Date 2005, up to and including Dec 31, 2005 it worked great,
once the New year came in when I push both keys I get the date format
___/___/___ and the cursor comes up in the second section, but no
date of any kind. I tried changing the date on the machine to Dec
2005 and low and behold it works correctly again, but the minute th
computer is in January 2006, it will not wotk.

Who can help correct this situation??

To add to Allen's advice, remember that Access does not store the date
in the format displayed. It displays the data as formatted, but does not
change the actual data.

 

[Ron2005]

if you are only trying to save the date (and not time) then you might
consider also changeing the field on the form (and/or the table) to be
formated as ShortDate. Then it will act same as excel in that
entering 01/15 will automatically supply 2005 (or 05 depending on
your windows setting for date format [sometimes])

Ron

 

[Allen Browne]

Ron, thanks for contributing, but setting the Format property of the field
only affects how the data is displayed.

If there is a time component, the Short Date format masks the time so you
don't see it, but the time is still there, and the record will not match any
query where you search for the actual date.

The bit about Access supplying the year works in any date field, i.e. the
Format does not contribute to that.

 

[Ron2005]

True. I think my mind was on focused on text field for some unknown
reason, in which case the formating would help.

That's what I get for juggling too many things or reading too many
messages and getting them confused.

Ron