WD97: Month, Day Transposed After Updating Form Field

• Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

When you update a text form field that contains a date, the month and day will be transposed. For example, if the text form field is specified as date, and the date format is M/d/yyyy, and you type 1/8 for January 8, the field result is 8/1 when the field is updated.

This problem occurs when all of the following are true:

• The text form field type is set for Date.

  -and-

• The text form field date format begins with a month, such as M/d/yyyy.

  -and-

• You type the date without including the year. For example, you type 1/8.

WORKAROUND

Microsoft provides examples of Visual Basic for Applications procedures for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. The Visual Basic procedures in this article are provided 'as is' and Microsoft does not guarantee that they can be used in all situations. While Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular macro, they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality, nor will they help you construct macros to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to consult one of the Microsoft Solution Providers. Solution Providers offer a wide range of fee-based services, including creating custom macros. For more information about Microsoft Solution Providers, call Microsoft Customer Information Service at (800) 426- 9400.

To work around this problem, use the following macro that formats the text you type into a form field in a specified date format:

   Sub FormatDate_OnExit()
      Dim fField As FormField
      Dim sFieldName As String
      Dim dDateFormat As String
      ' Specify the form field Bookmark name.
      sFieldName = "Text1"
      ' Specify the date format.
      sDateFormat = "MMM d, yy"
      Set fField = ActiveDocument.FormFields(sFieldName)
      If IsDate(fField.Result) Then
         fField.Result = Format$(CDate(fField.Result), sDateFormat)
      End If
   End Sub

1. On the Tools menu, click Unprotect Document.

2. Double-click the form field.

3. In the Type box, click Regular Text.

4. In the On Exit box click the macro you created above.

5. Click OK.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

Word does not contain true date fields; just text with date formatting.