Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Office 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Understanding DATE Field Formatting.
When you insert a DATE field in Word, you can specify a format for how the date is displayed by using the \@ switch with the field. For instance, if you wanted to display the date as 18 September 2020, you would use the following syntax for the DATE field:
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Office 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: 
{ DATE \@ "d MMMM yyyy" }
You can easily change the format for the date by changing what is within the quote marks. The options are as follows:
| Format Code | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| M | Displays one or two digits for the month, as necessary. | |
| MM | Always displays two digits for the month. | |
| MMM | The three-letter abbreviation for the month. | |
| MMMM | The full name of the month. | |
| d | Displays one or two digits for the day of the month, as necessary. | |
| dd | Always displays two digits for the day of the month. | |
| ddd | The three-letter abbreviation for the day of the week. | |
| dddd | The full name of the day of the week. | |
| yy | Always displays two digits for the year. | |
| yyyy | Always displays four digits for the year. |
Note that the letter M must be uppercase in all formats, but that the letters d and y can be upper or lower. Any other characters you use in the format string are displayed as entered.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9260) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Office 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Understanding DATE Field Formatting.
Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2013. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word 2013 Step by Step today!
Word allows you to configure what you see so that field codes are visible instead of the results of those field codes. ...
Discover MoreIf you are creating a reference document of some type, you may want to include in the header of that document an ...
Discover MoreDo you want to keep track of when changes were made to your document? This tip looks at a couple of ways to do it, along ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2019-07-31 14:06:53
bnan
{ =Jul 31, 2019 \@ "MMMM d, yyyy" } gives me the following error:
!Syntax Error, 31
What am I doing wrong in this formula?
Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2021 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments