After SP2 form field error message: a valid date or time is required

[AndrewMac]

I have been using some protected forms in Word prior to and since
upgrading to OSX and MSWord 2004.

Today after upgrading to SP2, I am getting a form field error message
when trying to put the two digit month or date into two form fields
that are set to be two digit "number" fields: "A valid date or time is
required."

I have tried resaving these form fields without success. The four digit
year field (also set to be a number field) is still working fine as are
all the other fields in these forms.

I'd appreciate any suggestions for getting these fields to work as they
always had before.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Andrew:

Check that you have not changed the date style in Office or your system
during the upgrade. It may be that the system date style has changed,
interfering with the interpretation of what has been typed in the field.

Cheers

I have been using some protected forms in Word prior to and since
upgrading to OSX and MSWord 2004.

Today after upgrading to SP2, I am getting a form field error message
when trying to put the two digit month or date into two form fields
that are set to be two digit "number" fields: "A valid date or time is
required."

I have tried resaving these form fields without success. The four digit
year field (also set to be a number field) is still working fine as are
all the other fields in these forms.

I'd appreciate any suggestions for getting these fields to work as they
always had before.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[AndrewMac]

John,

I appreciate your reply.

1. Would you clarify (by menu and option) which settings you are
suggesting I should check and what options should be seleted to try to
resolve this issue.

2. To help orient me for this and related issues in the future, could
you help me understand how these date settings could have any effect on
form fields that are set up via the form fields options to be generic
two digit number fields not date fields. True, there is a plain text
label "date" in the document before the form field, but there is
nothing in the form field itself to identify it as a date field of any
kind.

What seems strange is that this issue occurs in the both of the 2 digit
number form fields I use for the month and the date, but not in the 4
digit number form field for the year.

Thanks

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Andrew:

I really don't have a clear idea of the code you are running, so this is a
bit hard.

VBA uses "rules" to interpret what you type when you ask it to coerce the
digits you enter into a DATE field. It begins by assuming the incoming date
is in the operating system's default Date style.

For example: the number "10" can of course be a day or a month. Which?

Take 6/10: If your OS Date style is Australian, VBA will assume that's "6th
of October". If you have a US Date style, it's "10th of June". I can't
tell where your code is erroring, but I would suggest that it's after you
attempt to concatenate the two sets of digits (Month, Day) into a DATE
field. At that point, VBA is telling you the result is not a valid date.

Cheers

John,

I appreciate your reply.

1. Would you clarify (by menu and option) which settings you are
suggesting I should check and what options should be seleted to try to
resolve this issue.

2. To help orient me for this and related issues in the future, could
you help me understand how these date settings could have any effect on
form fields that are set up via the form fields options to be generic
two digit number fields not date fields. True, there is a plain text
label "date" in the document before the form field, but there is
nothing in the form field itself to identify it as a date field of any
kind.

What seems strange is that this issue occurs in the both of the 2 digit
number form fields I use for the month and the date, but not in the 4
digit number form field for the year.

Thanks

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[AndrewMac]

John,

Thanks for the dialogue.

I'm not "running" any code that I'm aware of and as far as I can tell
I'm not using a DATE field!!!

In OSX 10.3.9 Word 2004 SP2 try the following:

Open a new document.

From the view menu in Word, select Forms.
From the Form palette click Text Form Field.
From the Form palette click Form Field Options.

Select Type as Number, Maximum Length as 2, Number format as 0.
Make sure fill-in enabled is checked and click OK.

From Tools menu select protect document. Select protect forms and click

OK.
Then try to enter a two digit number in the numeric form field.
You get the error message "a valid date or time is required."

This is not a DATE field, it is a NUMBER field.

I have several dozen forms that were set up like this and never acted
this way until SP2 update.

Now modify the form field length to 3 digits long. The error message
does not occur.
This seems like a bug to me.

I wish I knew how to report it to MS or get it working as it did
before.

If I have to I can create a new master with 3 digit numeric form fields
to hold my two digit numbers and recreate each of my individualized
forms. This seems like a workaround that shouldn't be necessary.

Thanks,
AndrewMac

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Reproduced in OS 10.3.9, Word 11.2 (SP2 v.1)

John,

Thanks for the dialogue.

I'm not "running" any code that I'm aware of and as far as I can tell
I'm not using a DATE field!!!

In OSX 10.3.9 Word 2004 SP2 try the following:

Open a new document.
Select Type as Number, Maximum Length as 2, Number format as 0.
Make sure fill-in enabled is checked and click OK.

OK.
Then try to enter a two digit number in the numeric form field.
You get the error message "a valid date or time is required."

This is not a DATE field, it is a NUMBER field.

I have several dozen forms that were set up like this and never acted
this way until SP2 update.

Now modify the form field length to 3 digits long. The error message
does not occur.
This seems like a bug to me.

I wish I knew how to report it to MS or get it working as it did
before.

If I have to I can create a new master with 3 digit numeric form fields
to hold my two digit numbers and recreate each of my individualized
forms. This seems like a workaround that shouldn't be necessary.

Thanks,
AndrewMac

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Andrew:

Ah. OK. Well, you just *did* report it, but just to be sure, I will
forward this directly to the developers.

Chances are, the "error" is that they're demanding that you make room for
the "sign". So: One more character would do you.

We'll see if the Devs come back with anything.

Cheers

John,

Thanks for the dialogue.

I'm not "running" any code that I'm aware of and as far as I can tell
I'm not using a DATE field!!!

In OSX 10.3.9 Word 2004 SP2 try the following:

Open a new document.
Select Type as Number, Maximum Length as 2, Number format as 0.
Make sure fill-in enabled is checked and click OK.

OK.
Then try to enter a two digit number in the numeric form field.
You get the error message "a valid date or time is required."

This is not a DATE field, it is a NUMBER field.

I have several dozen forms that were set up like this and never acted
this way until SP2 update.

Now modify the form field length to 3 digits long. The error message
does not occur.
This seems like a bug to me.

I wish I knew how to report it to MS or get it working as it did
before.

If I have to I can create a new master with 3 digit numeric form fields
to hold my two digit numbers and recreate each of my individualized
forms. This seems like a workaround that shouldn't be necessary.

Thanks,
AndrewMac

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[AndrewMac]

Thanks Daiya for confirming and John for understanding the issue.

For further clarification, the same error message occurs even if the
form field type is "text" in a 2 character wide field which makes the
"sign" explanation seem weak. It still seems like a reproducible bug in
SP2 to me. Again this didn't occur in pre SP2 Word 2004 or Word 2001.

Looks like I will have to redo my form master to expand these 2 digit
form fields to 3 digits. For 30 or so previously individualized forms
I'm going to have to hand write my dates on my print outs or redo all
of them from a modified master with expanded 3 digit fields. As soon as
I unprotect the existing individualized forms to increase these fields
from 2 to 3 characters I loose all the individualized inputs previously
saved into the many form fields. Frustrating.

Thanks again,

AndrewMac

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Thanks Andrew:

Microsoft test engineers have confirmed and logged the bug.

There should be another Service Pack in around six months, and with luck
that might make it in there. (A bit line-ball: if the fix is easy, it will
be in the next SP, if it's difficult, it will have to wait for the next
Release, and if it's expensive, it will have to wait forever....)

If this is inconveniencing a large number of users, you have a greater
chance of getting it on the list to be fixed. If you feel like quantifying
how many users are affected and what they are trying to do (in a private
email to me) I can ask to have that information added to the bug for you.

Cheers

Thanks Daiya for confirming and John for understanding the issue.

For further clarification, the same error message occurs even if the
form field type is "text" in a 2 character wide field which makes the
"sign" explanation seem weak. It still seems like a reproducible bug in
SP2 to me. Again this didn't occur in pre SP2 Word 2004 or Word 2001.

Looks like I will have to redo my form master to expand these 2 digit
form fields to 3 digits. For 30 or so previously individualized forms
I'm going to have to hand write my dates on my print outs or redo all
of them from a modified master with expanded 3 digit fields. As soon as
I unprotect the existing individualized forms to increase these fields
from 2 to 3 characters I loose all the individualized inputs previously
saved into the many form fields. Frustrating.

Thanks again,

AndrewMac

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410