Date Problems in Journal

[John White]

Help!!
Using Word 2003 I have established a Journal in which I make entries 2
or 3 times a week. Using the insert feature I put the days date at the top
and have dates going back several years. After finishing each days entries
I save to my hard drive. For some unknown reason all of my entries over the
past years now have had the date changed to Thursday March 8, 2007. I have
no idea why this happened. Is there any way I can correct this and how can
I prevent it happening in the future?
Thank You,
John White

 

[Terry Farrell]

You have been inserting the date as a field and something has triggered
'Update Fields' in your document. What you need to do is to insert the date
and then use the UnLink field command (Ctrl+Shft+F9). This turns the field
into text so that it can never update.

 

[John White]

Thanks very much Terry. A couple of other questions:
1. After receiving your reply I went into Word Help and looked under
Dates. They have a section Locking and unlocking Dates. They say Control +
F11 locks the dates and control+shift+F11 unlocks dates. Is the the same
thing as the Contol+shift+F9 command?
2. Am I correct that your instructions will only correct the problem on
a going forward basis and there is nothing I can do concerning the 2 years
of dates that were updated to the March 8, 2007 date?
3. On a going forward basis is there anyway to determine that the date
field is unlocked? With each new days dates should I enter the
control+shift+F9 each time.
Thanks Again,
John White

 

[macropod]

Hi John,

Ctrl-Shift-F9 converts the field to plain text.
Ctrl-F11 locks the results but leaves the field intact.

Terry's instructions will only deal with current & future dates - you'll have to recreate the past dates manually.

Unless you use change tracking, or versioning, there's no practical way of determining when a field was inserted or locked.

Cheers

 

[Terry Farrell]

As Macropod suggests, Locking the field is reversible in that it can be
unlocked. What I suggest is UnLink which actually converts the field into
text and is thus irreversible - which I think is more appropriate for your
need.

Terry

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Even more suitable would be to insert the date as plain text to begin with.