Mac Word format question

[Water Bill]

I want to use dates as page numbers in Mac Word 2004. I am trying to
build a "book" with one page for each day of the year and I need each
consecutive page to show its distinct consecutive date.

i.e., The first page in the document would be "Jan 1, 2007". Page two
would be "Jan 2, 2007" and so on. Does anyone know if I can do this in
Mac Office 2004? If so, how is it done?

Thanks

WB

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

You just want the pages blank? Entourage (and probably iCal) will give
you a blank planner with times allocated. Might that work instead?
Probably simpler.

If that's not acceptable--I would use Excel to create the list of dates.
Type the first few in a column, then Edit | Fill | Series will let you
get the whole year pretty easily. (Myself, I would include day of the
week, doing it that way)

Then a catalog merge in Word would let you pull each day. Format the
merge field in the text you desire, and probably with Format | Paragraph
| Page Break Before applied. Then merge. This would be in the main text
of the document, not in the header/footer as a page number would be.

You might say a little bit more about the ultimate aim of your project
and how you will be using this "book" in case someone has a better idea.

I assume you want to print this--if you want booklet form, see here:
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/BookletsFold.html

 

[Peter Jamieson]

There are various possible ways to do it depending on what you are trying to
achieve, but in the general case I would probably favour the following
a. using a VBA routine to set up the texts you want in document variables
called day1, day2, ,day366. Once you have run that routine, the document can
be used for the year you specified
b. using a nested field like this in your header or footer:

{ DOCVARIABLE "day{ PAGE }" }

Sample VBA:

' A routine to set up 366 "daynnn" variables starting with date StartDate
' By doing 366 it doesn't matter whether it's a leap year or not

Sub SetUpDateVariables(StartDate As Date)
On Error Resume Next
For i = 1 To 366
ActiveDocument.Variables("day" & Trim(CStr(i))).Delete
ActiveDocument.Variables.Add _
Name:="day" & Trim(CStr(i)), _
Value:=Format(DateAdd("D", i - 1, StartDate), "MMM D, YYYY")
Next
End Sub

' A routine to set up the day variables for 2007
Sub setup2007()
Call SetUpDateVariables(#1/1/2007#)
End Sub

a. Put the macros in a module in your document or a suitable template
b. run setup2007. The variables are created and persist in your document
c. in your document, in a header or footer, use command-F9 to insert some
field code braces {}
d. type DOCVARIABLE "day" so you have

{ DOCVARIABLE "day" }

Put the insertion point just before the second double-quote and press
command-F9 again so you have

{ DOCVARIABLE "day{ }" }

type DATE between the new braces so you have

{ DOCVARIABLE "day{ DATE }" }

then update the field and verify that it works as you expect. Use the Page
Number Format icon in the header/footer toolbar to ensure that { PAGE }
returns a number and nothing else, and starts at 1.

You can probably do it all using fields but I think the docvariable approach
is a reasonably simple and maintanable solution.

Peter Jamieson

 

[Water Bill]

DM,

The"ultimate aim" of the project is to fulfill a regulatory requirement
for my line of work. The requirement is to have a bound book with
consecutively numbered pages to enter data regarding utility system
operation. To make this most efficient for me, I am attempting to
build a "book" for each month or quarter for each system I deal with.
The only variation from page to page will likely be the date (a
substitute for page number). The remainder of the page will be a
variety of circle the answer type questions and fill-in-the-blanks for
on-site operating staff to indicate specific conditions and task
completions each day for that specific system. The regulatory agency
overseeing this work is soon to require bound, numbered pages to reduce
the chance of someone removing pages without it being noticable. The
one day per page approach seemed better to me than buying an absolutely
blank book and adding everything longhand.

I think the data merge approach using a date field from Excel will work
great. Thanks for your input.

 

[Water Bill]

Peter,

While you answer certainly appears well thought out and thorough, it is
beyond my technical capabilities. Thanks for your reply!

WB

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Glad the merge approach helped. So, of course, before running the merge,
you can set up the entire page just once, and with a catalog merge, Word
will duplicate what you set up to every page of the finished merge--and
it will create a page for each day that you entered in Excel. Be sure
to include the page break in your setup--Word does not add page breaks
automatically with a catalog merge.

Daiya