Typing in date in Word 2003

sandieb

Help please! When I type in the date in Word 2003 eg 8 May 2003, it automatically changes it to 8 May 2006-05-08. I have looked in Autocorrect, but don't seem to be able to find the relevant info to turn off. There must be a simple way to do this, but it's not apparent to me!

L400ras

simply do not hit enter immediatly after the 6 of "2006". if you look it says "Press enter to insert". if you need the next line, press DOWN arrow first - then enter.

sandieb

Hi there - yes many thanks for that advice. I had noticed before that the date stays as I want it if I just hit the arrow down key. However, after many years of being a touch typist I have great trouble in stopping my fingers hitting the return key at the end of the date line when typing correspondence! It's done before I can even think about it!

CarolTheExtra

Thanks sandieb for asking the question about typing date in Word and thanks L400ras for your answer. I should have asked you folk a long while back as I
have been having this problem ever since I have used Word which has been a
few years now. Now at long last I know how to type the date properly.

CarolTheExtra

It looks like I also don't know how to type a reply as I have my carriage returns in the wrong places!!!!!!

sandieb

Phew - glad it's not just me been suffering with this date affliction!

taylornj

On the insert menu, select Auto Text sub menu, and click on AutoText. Click on the AutoText Tab on the dialog, and untick the "Show AutoComplete Suggestions" check box. Exit diglog by click on OK.

This should turn off the date completion and others.

Go to the same diglog Tick the "Show AutoComplete Suggestions" check box to turn back on.

fbrj

sandieb wrote:

Phew - glad it's not just me been suffering with this date affliction!

I've had that date problem for years.......
Thanks for solutions everybody!!!

lee634

CarolTheExtra wrote:

It looks like I also don't know how to type a reply as I have my carriage returns in the wrong places!!!!!!

Blimey "Carriage return" thats a word from the past with not many type writers left around these days we call the same key enter

Debt_Free_Chick

sandieb wrote:

Hi there - yes many thanks for that advice. I had noticed before that the date stays as I want it if I just hit the arrow down key. However, after many years of being a touch typist I have great trouble in stopping my fingers hitting the return key at the end of the date line when typing correspondence! It's done before I can even think about it!

When you hit carriage return (enter) by mistake and get the long, funny date - just hit "Z" whilst holding down the control key (ctrl+z). This will "undo" the automatic formatting that Word adds to the date. You will find this becomes second nature after a while e.g. date, enter, ctrl+z

Another tip ... if you are entering 9 May 2006, hit enter before you type "2006" - Word converts this to 9 May 2006, but doesn't then add "2006-05-09".

HTH

Debt_Free_Chick

lee634 wrote:

Blimey "Carriage return" thats a word from the past with not many type writers left around these days we call the same key enter

And another difference is that enter creates a new paragraph in Word. This is not simply a grammatical paragraph, but a block of text that Word identifies as a Style. Styles are rarely used but are incredibly useful as you can attach different formatting to a style and have a consistent look to the finished document.

A new line is inserted by shift+enter - this creates a new line within the same paragraph, therefore maintaining the existing style.

Anyone who uses Word should try and get their head around styles & templates to get the benefits of the efficiency of word processing. Sadly, most of us use Word like an electric typewriter :rotfl: