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: Monday's Date on Friday's Report.

Monday's Date on Friday's Report

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 27, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


Every Friday Ned produces a report that gets distributed in his company. He would like the heading of the report to always have the previous Monday's date in it. He wonders how he can have it dynamically display the date for the Monday of the current week.

If Ned were producing the report in Excel, calculating the past Monday's date would be very easy. This isn't Excel, however; the report is in Word. So the task is nowhere near as easy. There are a few of approaches you can take,however.

One approach is to actually create the Word document for your report on Monday. You don't have to put anything into the report; just create the document that will be used at the end of the week to create the report. You can then include a field in the header that inserts the date the document was created (the CreateDate field). It will always reflect the Monday on which the document was created.

If that doesn't fit your needs (perhaps you can't, for some reason, create the document on the Monday), you can try to create a date using a nested field. The following is a possibility:

{ date \@ "MMMM { ={date \@"dd"} -5} yyyy"}

Remember that each pair of field braces needs to be entered by using Ctrl+F9. The compound field will work for many dates, but will run into problems if the Friday on which you calculate the field is within the first five days of the month. (The calculation in the inner field will return a negative value on those days.) There is no easy way around this problem.

The easiest approach is to use a macro to insert the date. Macros can do date calculations quite easily. Here is an example of a quick little macro that can calculate the proper date:

Sub MondayBeforeToday()
    Subtract = Choose(Weekday(Date), 6, 7, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
    DateFormat = "dddd mm/dd/yyyy"
    Selection.InsertBefore Format((Date - Subtract), DateFormat)
End Sub

All you need to do is to position the insertion point where you want the date and then run the macro. It can be run on any day of the week and it will always insert the date of the previous Monday.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the WordTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9800) 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: Monday's Date on Friday's Report.

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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Setting Grammar-Checking Options

When Word checks the grammar it thinks you are using in your prose, it follows a set of rules. Fortunately the program ...

Discover More

Numbering with Sequence Fields

One of the most powerful and versatile fields you can use in Word is the SEQ field. This tip shows how you can use the ...

Discover More

Using Very Long Worksheet Tab Names

Excel places a limit on how many characters you can use in a worksheet name. This tip discusses that limit and provides ...

Discover More

Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 365 applications with VBA programming. Written in clear terms and understandable language, the book includes systematic tutorials and contains both intermediate and advanced content for experienced VB developers. Designed to be comprehensive, the book addresses not just one Office application, but the entire Office suite. Check out Mastering VBA for Microsoft Office 365 today!

More WordTips (menu)

Inserting the Author Name

Did you know that Word tries to keep track of who the author of a document is? This information can be easily added to ...

Discover More

Sticking with the Dashes

By default, dashes don't "stick" to the text that follows them. Here's one way around this normal formatting convention.

Discover More

Inserting a Cross-Reference to an Item in a List

When you create a list using the SEQ field, you may want to create a cross-reference to an item in that field. You can do ...

Discover More
Subscribe

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.

What is four less than 4?

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.

Videos
Subscribe

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

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.