[DaveK]

Help. I have Word 2003, templates with lots of text fields and some date
fields.
I protect the document and I can type in the "date fields" but nothing
formats or restricts the grey boxes so that an actual date is produced. The
date fields don't seem to have any programming different from Text fields.
Am I supposed to do something more than select the "date" and "mm/dd/yyyy" in
the choices under properties?

[Dawn Crosier, Word MVP]

Hi Dave -

Typically the formatting gets applied after tabbing out of the field. As
long the data that was keyed in was a valid date format, then when the field
is left, the formatting "mm/dd/yyyy" should be applied.

If that is not the case, then do you have any OnExit macros associated? Are
you getting an error?

--
Dawn Crosier
Microsoft MVP
"Education Lasts a Lifetime"

This message was posted to a newsgroup, Please post replies and questions
to the group so that others can learn as well.
"DaveK" wrote in message
...
Help. I have Word 2003, templates with lots of text fields and some date
fields.
I protect the document and I can type in the "date fields" but nothing
formats or restricts the grey boxes so that an actual date is produced. The
date fields don't seem to have any programming different from Text fields.
Am I supposed to do something more than select the "date" and "mm/dd/yyyy"
in
the choices under properties?

[DaveK]

Thanks for your help: When I inserted drop down boxes and regular text
fields I did not add anything more than some options within the "properties"
menu for each text field. All the fields on my template are blank when you
open properties and look at the macro entry/or macro exit fields.

If I understand your response, the only 'after tabbing past' formatting that
will automatically occur (because I selected "date" and a mm/dd/yyyy format)
with no other enhancements like macro on exit is that the user will have to
put in for example 01142007 and then tab past that field, and then Word will
format the 01142007 into the 01/14/2007 style? What surprised me is that I
can type text into the field and it does not seem to care.

I have not used VBA but I am trying to pick this up as fast as I can; I was
hoping that the "properties" menu created a date field with more inherit
function.

Thanks in advance for your response.

"Dawn Crosier, Word MVP" wrote:

Hi Dave -

Typically the formatting gets applied after tabbing out of the field. As
long the data that was keyed in was a valid date format, then when the field
is left, the formatting "mm/dd/yyyy" should be applied.

If that is not the case, then do you have any OnExit macros associated? Are
you getting an error?

--
Dawn Crosier
Microsoft MVP
"Education Lasts a Lifetime"

This message was posted to a newsgroup, Please post replies and questions
to the group so that others can learn as well.
"DaveK" wrote in message
...
Help. I have Word 2003, templates with lots of text fields and some date
fields.
I protect the document and I can type in the "date fields" but nothing
formats or restricts the grey boxes so that an actual date is produced. The
date fields don't seem to have any programming different from Text fields.
Am I supposed to do something more than select the "date" and "mm/dd/yyyy"
in
the choices under properties?

[DaveK]

Dawn: I re-read your response and re-visited my template; now I understand
because some date fields did pop with a "must have valid date" message. The
very first one I was testing, I had failed to put "date" in the properties
area, and instead it remained as regular text. Since this is the first time
I put date fields in a template with form fields, I guess I was expecting an
excel-like formatting function so if someone wrote November 20, 2007 it would
automatically re-format to 11/20/2007.

Thanks for taking care of me!!

"Dawn Crosier, Word MVP" wrote:

Hi Dave -

Typically the formatting gets applied after tabbing out of the field. As
long the data that was keyed in was a valid date format, then when the field
is left, the formatting "mm/dd/yyyy" should be applied.

If that is not the case, then do you have any OnExit macros associated? Are
you getting an error?

--
Dawn Crosier
Microsoft MVP
"Education Lasts a Lifetime"

This message was posted to a newsgroup, Please post replies and questions
to the group so that others can learn as well.
"DaveK" wrote in message
...
Help. I have Word 2003, templates with lots of text fields and some date
fields.
I protect the document and I can type in the "date fields" but nothing
formats or restricts the grey boxes so that an actual date is produced. The
date fields don't seem to have any programming different from Text fields.
Am I supposed to do something more than select the "date" and "mm/dd/yyyy"
in
the choices under properties?

[Dawn Crosier, Word MVP]

Glad you got it figured out!

Here is a listing of tutorials which deal specifically with form fields
which may be of interest to you.

http://www.mousetrax.com/TechPage.html#autoforms


--
Dawn Crosier
Microsoft MVP
"Education Lasts a Lifetime"

This message was posted to a newsgroup, Please post replies and questions
to the group so that others can learn as well.
"DaveK" wrote in message
...
Dawn: I re-read your response and re-visited my template; now I understand
because some date fields did pop with a "must have valid date" message. The
very first one I was testing, I had failed to put "date" in the properties
area, and instead it remained as regular text. Since this is the first
time
I put date fields in a template with form fields, I guess I was expecting an
excel-like formatting function so if someone wrote November 20, 2007 it
would
automatically re-format to 11/20/2007.

Thanks for taking care of me!!

"Dawn Crosier, Word MVP" wrote:

Hi Dave -

Typically the formatting gets applied after tabbing out of the field. As
long the data that was keyed in was a valid date format, then when the
field
is left, the formatting "mm/dd/yyyy" should be applied.

If that is not the case, then do you have any OnExit macros associated?
Are
you getting an error?

--
Dawn Crosier
Microsoft MVP
"Education Lasts a Lifetime"

This message was posted to a newsgroup, Please post replies and questions
to the group so that others can learn as well.
"DaveK" wrote in message
...
Help. I have Word 2003, templates with lots of text fields and some date
fields.
I protect the document and I can type in the "date fields" but nothing
formats or restricts the grey boxes so that an actual date is produced.
The
date fields don't seem to have any programming different from Text fields.
Am I supposed to do something more than select the "date" and "mm/dd/yyyy"
in
the choices under properties?