Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Inserting Today's Date.

Inserting Today's Date

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 26, 2023)

Many types of documents require the date. You may be working with a memo, a letter, a report, or some other document in which you must put the date. Word makes this easy by using the Date and Time option from the Insert menu. To insert the date, follow these steps:

Position the insertion point where you want the date to appear.
Choose Date and Time from the Insert menu. You will see the Date and Time dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Date and Time dialog box.

Select a format for the date.
Click on OK.

If you choose the "Update Automatically" check box a the bottom of the dialog box, the date is inserted as a field and it will always be updated to reflect the current date as you work on the document on future days. This can be very helpful if you are working with a letter template that you want to always be "in sync" with the day you write the letter.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1241) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Inserting Today's Date.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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