Date Format

[Brian Williams]

Hello,

I wish to include the date in the footer of my PowerPoint slides, using
the ISO standard yyyy-mm-dd, which is the only unambiguous format (and
also the only format that conforms to the concept of most significant
digits on the left). Unfortunately, it would appear that MS has
hardcoded a number of formats, missing both the ISO standard, and the
common European format (dd-mm-yyyy)(which has some logic to it, but
remains ambiguous). The ISO format is the format that I have set in my
System Preferences (sadly, noted as Custom rather than ISO Standard).

Does anybody know of a method to alter PowerPoint to allow the automatic
date insertion to follow the ISO standard. I shouldn't have to
incorporate a text block and manually enter the date on each slide.

Suggestions?

Thanks,

Brian

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi,

If you want to format the date format in PowerPoint's footer you can do
it by using Field Codes in Microsoft Word.

Open both PowerPoint and Word 2004.

In Word 2004 use Insert > Field

In the Date and Time category choose Date then click the Options button.
On the General Field Switches tab select the yyyy-MM-dd Date-time and
then click the Add To Field button. Click OK to close the dialog box,
and then click OK to close the other dialog box.

In the Word document highlight the entire date that you see to select
it. Then use Edit > Copy to copy the date (which has the field code
information).

Switch to PowerPoint.

In PowerPoint use View > Header and Footer.

On the Slide tab check the Date and Time option. I also chose to update
automatically. The click Apply.

Then use View > Master > Slide Master

In the footer section where you see the date & time text box, click into
the text box and highlight <date\time> and then use Edit > Paste to
overwrite that with the Field Code you copied from Word.

Click the Close button on the slide master little toolbar to return to
normal view in PowerPoint.

Now your slide will have the date format you requested. In my test, the
font was a little larger than I wanted, so I formatted it to a smaller
size, but the date was the proper format.

-Jim