Under the Form tab I do not like the date fields and see no way to alter them if I want to insert them in my preferred format. For today I would want 10 Sept 2020. The closest format leaves out the “t” and inserts periods. How can I get my format into the program so it inserts the way I want it to appear?
Have a look at built-in help Number Format Code.
The possibilities for “month” are rather limited. The code is between 1 M to 5 MMMMM and most of them are more or less dependent on the OS locale for providing the string.
-
MandMMprovide a numeric month number (variable number of digits or 2-digits). -
MMMreturns the abbreviation of the month; usually OS’es return only 3 letters without periods but it varies with locale. -
MMMMis the full month name. -
MMMMMreturns only the first letter, which can give rise to ambiguity.
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If by Number Format Code you mean Numberical Field, then it is not highlighted even when my inserted date is. Number Format appears under Table. It is not highlighted there, being that this document does not contain a table.
My answer was a shortcut for field formatting as it seemed your question was about that. See @Lupp’s detailed answer on how to access the format customisation screen for fields.
In trying to fix this Date format business, something else got messed up. Now I cannot insert a Page Number and actually show the page number. Instead the field reads “Page Number.” So, what worked before now no longer works. If this provides a clue to what’s wrong, then in Safe Mode the insert for Page Number works, but not after reverting to the full program. This whole program needs a reset to defaults.
Change the setting of View | Field names - or use keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F9
I used the keyboard shortcut. For the Tools-Options method I could not find that box to uncheck for displaying codes. The thread I found before coming back to this one goes back to 2014. As far as the date goes I will just type it manually without fooling anymore with these fields.
It isn’t under Tools | Options; as I mentioned, it is View | Field Names
Found it! Thanks.
What do you mean by Form tab?
If you are talking of a Date Field from the toolbar Form Controls, there is no way to define additional formats. Used YYYY-MM-DD exclusively in this case.
If this is about inserting a textfield of type date via the menu item >Insert>Field, you can edit the selected field after insertion, and set any format supported by any of the locales (Language) and by the respective numberformat codes using the option Additional formats. There may, however, not be a code creating four-letter-month-abbreviations in your preferred language. Using >Insert>Field>More Fields... you can do this in one go.
By Form Tab I meant the Drop Down menu. Just now I just discovered the icon for Insert Field. Since there is no solution for this, even though MS Word offered that format for the date, I will just manually type in the date as I want it without looking further for an easier means of doing it.
I rarely like the ways of MS. Nonetheless I am eager to learn how they did it. Can you tell me?
(Anybody might reconsider now and then if he [f/m] should stick to stubborn ways or better shift to well established standards.)