How do I compare two dates in Word 2003?

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Judith - 08 Aug 2005 15:42 GMT

I want to compare a MERGEFIELD date that has been extracted from an Access
database with a typed in value as part of an If...then...else statement. For
example, if the Date_Paid field is less than 01/01/2005 I want to insert text
to say that the person's membership has expired.

The syntax I came up with is
{IF {MERGEFIELD Date_Paid} < 01/01/2005 "This membership has expired" "This
membership is current"}
but it doesn't work. I have also tried adding a date pattern of \@
dd/MM\yyyy, and using quotes around the coparison date.

I am using Word 2003.

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Judith

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Doug Robbins - 08 Aug 2005 20:17 GMT

I would do the manipulation of the data with a query in Access.

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Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

>I want to compare a MERGEFIELD date that has been extracted from an Access
> database with a typed in value as part of an If...then...else statement.
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
> I am using Word 2003.

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Judith - 08 Aug 2005 21:12 GMT

I'm not exactly sure what you mean as I'm not very experienced with Access.
Are you indicating that Word can't actually compare dates? I have today tried
using the COMPARE function, but that seems to work only with strings and
numbers and the Help doesn't mention dates.

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Judith

> I would do the manipulation of the data with a query in Access.
>
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> >
> > I am using Word 2003.

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Doug Robbins - 09 Aug 2005 04:55 GMT

You might find something on comparing dates in Word at:

http://www.wopr.com/cgi-bin/w3t/showthreaded.pl?Number=249902

I think though that in Word, you will find it necessary to use a number of
nested If...then...else statements that separately compare the day, the
month and the year, whereas in Access, in a query you simply use

IIF([Date_Paid] < #01/01/2005#, "This membership has expired", "This
membership is current")

Learn to use the power of Access.

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Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

> I'm not exactly sure what you mean as I'm not very experienced with
> Access.
[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]
>> >
>> > I am using Word 2003.

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Judith - 09 Aug 2005 08:39 GMT

Thanks Doug. I will follow up both of these suggestions and let you know how
I get on.

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Judith

> You might find something on comparing dates in Word at:
>
[quoted text clipped - 36 lines]
> >> >
> >> > I am using Word 2003.

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Graham Mayor - 09 Aug 2005 06:26 GMT

{IF {MERGEFIELD Date_Paid \@ "yyyyMMdd"} < 20050101 "This membership has
expired"
"This membership is current"}

should do the trick - see http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

> I want to compare a MERGEFIELD date that has been extracted from an
> Access database with a typed in value as part of an If...then...else
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>
> I am using Word 2003.

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Judith - 09 Aug 2005 08:40 GMT

Thanks Graham - I will try this out as well as Doug's suggestions.

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Judith

> {IF {MERGEFIELD Date_Paid \@ "yyyyMMdd"} < 20050101 "This membership has
> expired"
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
> >
> > I am using Word 2003.

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Judith - 09 Aug 2005 09:57 GMT

Brilliant - it works exactly how I wanted it to (once I had remembered that I
needed to do MM rather than mm for the month!) Thanks a lot for the
suggestion.

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Judith

> {IF {MERGEFIELD Date_Paid \@ "yyyyMMdd"} < 20050101 "This membership has
> expired"
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
> >
> > I am using Word 2003.

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