Automatically insert the current date

[MikeW]

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

 

[garfield-n-odie]

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?

 

[MikeW]

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.

 

[garfield-n-odie]

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.

 

[MikeW]

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>

 

[garfield-n-odie]

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.

 

[Graham Mayor]

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.

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

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

 

[Greg Maxey]

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

 

[MikeW]

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.

 

[garfield-n-odie]

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.

 

[MikeW]

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.