Automatically insert the current date

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

MikeW - 30 May 2004 23:33 GMT

Word 2000
Autocomplete is turned on

Automatically insert the current date is not working.

I type the first four characters of the month, for example febr and the
word February is displayed in a screen tip. I then press enter and
February is inserted. I then type a space, and nothing, other than a
space. It used to work in the past without any problems.

In addition I have noticed that the screen tip only appears for the
following months, January, February, August, September, October,
November and December. Any help to try and solve this issue would be
appreciated

MikeW

Reply to this Message

garfield-n-odie - 30 May 2004 23:46 GMT

Because the current date is not in February? Assuming your computer's
system date is correct, if you type M-a-y-<space>, do you get the
current date suggestion?

> Word 2000
> Autocomplete is turned on
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>
> MikeW

Reply to this Message

MikeW - 31 May 2004 00:13 GMT

> Because the current date is not in February? Assuming your computer's
> system date is correct, if you type M-a-y-<space>, do you get the
> current date suggestion?

No. If I type "may" then a space all I get is May, no screen tip.
Computer system date and time is correct.

> > Word 2000
> > Autocomplete is turned on
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> >
> > MikeW

Reply to this Message

garfield-n-odie - 31 May 2004 00:42 GMT

Are you typing the date on the very first line of the document? If so,
that could be why... Word doesn't always recognize the four characters
you type on the first line of a document as being an autotext entry. If
you hit the enter key a couple of times before you type May<space>, Word
should offer an autocomplete suggestion.

If your system date is May xx, then typing Janu or Febr will only get
you a suggestion for January or February, not a whole date. There is no
autocomplete suggestion for the months of March, April, May, June, or
July apparently because Microsoft decided the names are too short to
need autocompleting.

>>Because the current date is not in February? Assuming your computer's
>>system date is correct, if you type M-a-y-<space>, do you get the
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
>>>
>>>MikeW

Reply to this Message

MikeW - 31 May 2004 10:08 GMT

> Are you typing the date on the very first line of the document? If so,
> that could be why... Word doesn't always recognize the four characters
> you type on the first line of a document as being an autotext entry. If
> you hit the enter key a couple of times before you type May<space>, Word
> should offer an autocomplete suggestion.

Afraid not. Have tried several locations on the document, same result.
In addition I have also done a uninstall/reinstall of Word.

> If your system date is May xx, then typing Janu or Febr will only get
> you a suggestion for January or February, not a whole date. There is no
> autocomplete suggestion for the months of March, April, May, June, or
> July apparently because Microsoft decided the names are too short to
> need autocompleting.

Thanks for that, still learning.
<snip

Reply to this Message

garfield-n-odie - 31 May 2004 12:04 GMT

Don't know what to tell you. It should work from what you've posted.
As a workaround, you can press Alt+Shift+D to insert a current date
field, then highlight the date field and press Ctrl+Shift+F9 to convert
the field to text. Might be easier to just type the date than to
remember the shortcut keys.

>>Are you typing the date on the very first line of the document? If
>
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
> Thanks for that, still learning.
> <snip

Reply to this Message

Graham Mayor - 31 May 2004 12:29 GMT

It might be easier still to insert the date in the required format using a
macro - see the examples at the end of
http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm. You could re-assign the
ALT+SHIFT+D sequence to the macro - or use another shortcut of your
choosing.

Signature

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

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

> Don't know what to tell you. It should work from what you've posted.
> As a workaround, you can press Alt+Shift+D to insert a current date
[quoted text clipped - 33 lines]
>> Thanks for that, still learning.
>> <snip

Reply to this Message

MikeW - 01 Jun 2004 00:51 GMT

> Don't know what to tell you. It should work from what you've posted.
> As a workaround, you can press Alt+Shift+D to insert a current date
> field, then highlight the date field and press Ctrl+Shift+F9 to convert
> the field to text. Might be easier to just type the date than to
> remember the shortcut keys.

I think we might be getting somewhere. I pressed Alt+Shift+D and that
inserted the current date (01/06/2004) in a field. There was no need to
highlight and press Ctrl+Shift+F9. In fact I did, out of curiosity, but
nothing happened.

The main reason for my post is that I use Word to make out invoices for
my business from a saved template. I will now have to wait 23 hours to
see if the date changes automatically. Many thanks for all your help and
to Graham Mayor and Greg Maxey for responding. I will let you all know
in 23 hours.

> >>Are you typing the date on the very first line of the document? If
> >
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
> > Thanks for that, still learning.
> > <snip

Reply to this Message

garfield-n-odie - 01 Jun 2004 01:13 GMT

Highlighting the date field and pressing Ctrl+Shift+F9 changes the field
from a field to text. If you skip this part, the date will change to
the current system date each time you open the file.

If you want to insert a date field into an invoice template, it might be
better to insert a Createdate field (Insert | Field | Field names:
Createdate). As the name suggests, the Createdate field inserts the
date the document was created, and you don't have to do the
Ctrl+Shift+F9 thing to it.

>>Don't know what to tell you. It should work from what you've posted.
>>As a workaround, you can press Alt+Shift+D to insert a current date
[quoted text clipped - 65 lines]
>>>Thanks for that, still learning.
>>> <snip

Reply to this Message

MikeW - 01 Jun 2004 01:52 GMT

> Highlighting the date field and pressing Ctrl+Shift+F9 changes the field
> from a field to text.

> If you skip this part, the date will change to
> the current system date each time you open the file.

Great! That's exactly what I want.
Make out an invoice, print two copies, one for customer one for file,
with the current date. Delete invoice and Word asks "Do you want to save
changes made to invoice" Click on No......template is now ready for next
customer.

> If you want to insert a date field into an invoice template, it might be
> better to insert a Createdate field (Insert | Field | Field names:
[quoted text clipped - 71 lines]
> >>>Thanks for that, still learning.
> >>> <snip

Reply to this Message

Greg Maxey - 31 May 2004 13:33 GMT

It is not just you. The autocomplete date feature is fickle in Word2000 and
2002. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Some say that ignoring
the Month complete and finishing typing with the space will increase the
odds of you getting the date. But it is still hit and miss.

I reassigned ALT+SHIFT+ D to fire the following macro:

Sub DateStamp()
' Inserts current date
Selection.InsertDateTime DateTimeFormat:="MMMM dd, yyyy",
InsertAsField:=False
End Sub

Signature

Greg Maxey
A peer in "peer to peer" support
Rockledge, FL
To e-mail, edit out the "w...spam" in gmaxey@whamspammvps.org

> Word 2000
> Autocomplete is turned on
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>
> MikeW

Reply to this Message