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: Quickly Inserting the Date Your Way.

Quickly Inserting the Date Your Way

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated October 22, 2016)

Several other WordTips explain how you can understand and change the default dates used by Word. Some people prefer a simple way of inserting the date, in their preferred format, using AutoText. To set up this method of date entry, follow these steps:

Position the insertion point on a blank line.
Choose Date and Time from the Insert menu. Word displays the Date and Time dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Date and Time dialog box.

Choose the display format that is closest to what you want.
Make sure the Update Automatically check box is selected at the bottom of the dialog box.
Click on OK. The date, using the selected format, appears in your document.
Select the date field and press Shift+F9. This displays the actual DATE field coding.
Change the format within the quote marks to reflect your final format.
Press Shift+F9 to display the DATE field results instead of the field coding.
Select the date field again.
Choose AutoText from the Insert menu. This displays a submenu.
Select New from the submenu. Word displays the Create AutoText dialog box. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. The Create AutoText dialog box.

Type the word Date in the Name field.
Click on OK. Your DATE field, properly formatted, is now saved under the Date AutoText entry.

Now, to use the entry, type the word Date and then press the F3 key. The word Date is replaced with your DATE field, as you saved it in AutoText.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1265) 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: Quickly Inserting the Date Your Way.

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...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Spell Check Misses Misspelled Words

If you do a spelling check and notice that Word doesn't catch a word that you know is misspelled, it is easy to get ...

Discover More

Selecting Multiple Cells by Mistake

Click on a cell and you expect the single cell to be selected. If you instead get a group of cells, it can be frustrating ...

Discover More

Getting Rid of Empty Rows after Importing

Import data into a worksheet (or paste it there) and you may find that you end up with a group of blank cells you need to ...

Discover More

Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 2013 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access) with VBA programming, using it for writing macros, automating Office applications, and creating custom applications. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2013 today!

More WordTips (menu)

A Quick-and-Dirty Word Count

Word provides a tool that counts the number of words in a document. Here's an alternative method of calculating the ...

Discover More

Inserting the Document Creation Date

One of the pieces of information tracked by Word is when a document was first created. Here's how you can access that ...

Discover More

Maintaining Fields in a Merged Document

When merging documents, you may want to include some fields in the merged documents. For some fields this is impossible, ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is nine minus 8?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.