Word 2004 Time Stamp Field to Text

[Tom Semadeni]

Word 2004 time stamping:

I need help to convert/use the "Time" stamp in the Formatting Palette to
text instead of a field that shows current time instead of input time.


Using Word 2004 on Mac OS X 10.3.5 to do Volunteer Fire Dept Logs on the fly
while dispatching so a single key time stamp for use throughout the doc
would be nice.

New iMac so I tried the "Time Stamp" in the Formatting Palette>Add
Objects>Time. UNchecked the "Update automatically" box in Insert>Date and
Time from the main pull-down menu.

But all the time FIELDS stay as FIELDS and will not convert to TEXT. So it
is embarrassing when others open an emailed Dispatch Report and Log to see
that all the times are now the current time of opening the Report instead of
the time of each action.

Is there another simple way to use a key to time stamp the document for each
time an activity takes place?

Many thanks,

Newby

Tom Dispatch

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Probably your best option is to use Insert | Field to insert a CreateDate
field set to show the time (click on Options to format as desired). You can
make the field an AutoText entry or a macro, and give it a keyboard shortcut
or a toolbar icon, for fast entry.

If you insert the time as a field, you can either Lock the Field (freeze it
until you unlock it) or Unlink the Field (converts it to plain text, it will
never update again). I forgot the default key commands for these, but Help
should spit them out.

I don't use the Formatting Palette, but when I Insert | Date and Time in
Word 2001, without checking "update automatically", I don't get a field.
The formatting palette may have different behavior--the wording of Add
Objects makes me wonder if those are set to be fields by default, as often
things Word calls objects (embedded objects, e.g.) are (I think) updateable.
Not plain text, anyhow. Don't know how the Insert | Date and Time menu
interacts with the Formatting Palette.

 

[Tom Semadeni]

Thanks a lot for solving this for me!

I will work on the "best option" that you described over the long pull. It
will be new stuff to learn...Autotext, Macros, giving a keyboard shortcut or
toolbar icon etc.

In the meantime I will use the formatting palette and Unlink the fields
using the short cut:
"To unlink a field, click the field, and then press z+SHIFT+F9."
Where z is the Apple key.
The key word that you gave me was "unlinking". : )

I will leave everything as fields and then Select All and unlink them all
when I finish the call and the dispatch report. I usually have 20 to 40
times/actions to record on a single call. ( The big challenge will be to
remember to unlink at the end! And at my advancing age, I better figure out
a surefire way to remember!)

I believe that the Insert Date and Time menu and the Formatting Palette are
independent..... As I learned the hard way!

Thanks a lot for your help. This is my first contact with this News Group
and it sure won't be my last.

Tom Semadeni,
Volunteer Dispatch

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Hi Tom,

I changed my mind about your best option, assuming you didn't want all the
times to be identical.

This macro will insert the current time in hours and minutes, if that helps,
and will not update, and the link below tells you what to do with it,
although recording your own macro might be simpler than reading the linked
article.

http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/InstallMacroMac.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

Sub InsertCurrentTime()

Selection.InsertDateTime DateTimeFormat:="HH:mm", InsertAsField:=False
End Sub

There are extended (windows-centric) directions on assigning a shortcut here
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/AsgnCmdOrMacroToToolbar.htm
but really all you need to do, once the macro is installed, is open up Tools
| Customize, find the macro on the Commands tab (select Macros in left
column, InsertCurrentTime in right column), and drag it to a toolbar. Or
click on Keyboard, find the macro the same way, and assign a shortcut.

If you don't want this date/time format, holler back--OR, Tools | Macro,
Record New Macro, name the macro, do the Insert | Date and Time to your
desired format, hit the square stop on the macro recording toolbar, and use
that macro instead.

Macro and shortcut is maybe a 15-min project, easily less--Word will be much
less annoying if you learn to control it in ways like these.

AutoText can be a bit complicated--but if your dispatch reports regularly
use the same text over and over again, you should definitely be using either
AutoText or AutoCorrect, see here for info:

http://word.mvps.org/faqs/customization/AutoCorrect.htm
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/AutoText.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser), and
PC-centric, but I think comprehensible.

DM

 

[AK]

In Word 2004, Insert/Date then pick a format will give you a text date
or time that won't update -no need for anything fancy. If you need the
same timestamp in several places, copy the first!.
AK

 

[Tom Semadeni]

Hi Dayo,

Thanks a lot for your follow-up.

This is a typical log that was done a few days ago, while responding to a
highway accident:

TIME WHO ACTION
<<SNIP>>
08:32 Deputy med unit out of the hall with
FF Jackie & FF Sangelais
08:35 Chief rescue & pumper out of the
hall
08:37 Barnsdale tanker out of the hall
08:42 Deputy med on scene
08:43 Chief rescue and pumper on scene
08:45 Chief highway closed by O.P.P.
08:48 Barnsdale tanker on scene
09:00 Chief PS ambulance 5258 on scene

I am at home recording the action as it happens while working the fire radio
and doing quite a bit of telephoning on ordinary residential phones and a
cell. So it is important to capture the front end of an incident quickly. I
usually have lots of time later in the incident to pretty it up, do the
narrative and fill in the blanks in the report. The time of each action is
really important.

I also have a couple of other volunteers that I am trying to train as
back-up Dispatchers using their own computers at home. Right now they are
filing in forms and I am keying the data later. : (

So the usage priorities are:
Simplicity,and
Speed and other ease of use factors.

The emailed output, as attachments, has to be easy for others (Police,
insurers, medical, etc) to read.

I am going to visit your recommended links. I agree... I would probably
find Word less annoying if I properly used Macros and the Auto features,
which I usually turn off. The test will be whether I can understand and
control this stuff and then pass it on to others.

I will probably be a few days before I can give you progress feedback.
Other pressing business!

I really appreciate you advice and assistance. Maybe I will properly learn
to control Word's features instead of fighting them!

Tom Semadeni

 

[Tom Semadeni]

Hi AK,
Thanks for your response.
I need to get those times down quickly so leaving the formatting palette
open and clicking the time icon is the quickest that I can come up with ...
other than Dayo's suggestions (see his earlier post and my reply to him.)
I probably log 10 to 50 different times per incident. Insert/Date takes too
many clicks/scrolls to be efficient at the busy early stages of an call.

I had hoped that unchecking the Update automatically box in that
Insert/Date-Time Dialogue box would be generic and lock the time field in
the formatting palette. No such luck.
Looks like I will have to learn about macros and the Auto stuff. Things
that I have been avoiding for years!
Tom

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Hi Tom,

File the previous message for future reference, when you've got 15-30 mins
to absorb it and explore the dialogs. But my suggestions can produce an end
result of an icon labeled Insert Current Time that will do just that, and
that you could also show others how to set up on their computer.

It is an investment of learning time, but it's usually worth it. And I find
the easiest way to learn is to just play around trying to get a small
project (like this one) accomplished. Good luck with it. Post back if you
need more help once you have found the time to sit down with it.

Dayo

 

[Tom Semadeni]

Hi Dayo,
Well, I now have a keyboard shortcut to insert the times as text! And I have
also set up the blank document with a field which returns the time that the
doc was opened... Usually as the call is coming in.

Setting up the keyboard shortcut was a little heuristic because both the
links that you gave and the Word help don't correspond to what my version of
Word 2004 for Mac Version 11.00 (040408) does.

When I pull down the Tools Menu and get into Macro or Custom, the dialogue
boxes are different from those shown on the links and help. I suspect that
they both are lagging the development of the product.

The big results are that:
I have a much easier form to use which I can train to,
I had success experimenting with macros and keyboard shortcuts, and
I had success using this Newsgroup.

Thanks a lot for your help. You can count on me to contact you and the
group much earlier when the next difficulty arises.

Tom Semadeni

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Hi Tom,

Glad that all worked out. Some of the links are for WinWord, not Mac, and
the Mac-specific one may well be out of date, I don't have 2004 to compare
it to (and all the articles I referenced are written by volunteers, not MS,
so no one gets paid to keep them up to date).

But once you get the basic hang of how the dialogs work, it gets easier and
easier to do other projects. Here's another easy one: check into using
AutoCorrect so that you can type in firefighter initials and have them
automatically replaced with the names, or type amb and have it replaced with
ambulance, tos for tanker on scene, etc.

People do get paid to keep Help up to date, though....so if anything was
particularly different/problematic, you may want to report it in detail
(include name of specific topic that is wrong, and how): either on this ng,
where someone from the MacBU should track it, or at this link, or Send
Feedback under Help.
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/feedback/suggestion.asp

Dayo

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Tom,

Just thought I should mention that Dayo is a she not a he .

--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org>

 

[Tom Semadeni]

Dayo!!!!!
Plse accept my apologies ...... Sorry.
And thanks, Beth.
Tom (Elderly male who remembers, "Dayoh, daylight come and I wanna go
home.".... H. Belafonte.)

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Trust me, you don't have to be elderly to remember that song--I run into a
lot of people of all ages who know it very well--although my name is
actually pronounced DAH-yo. Anyhow, not a problem re the understandable
mistake.

Dayo