Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. 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: Different Ways of Inserting Dates.

Different Ways of Inserting Dates

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 2, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021


1

Word provides a couple of different ways to insert the current date in a document. One common way is to display the Insert tab of the ribbon and then click Date & Time in the Text group. Word displays the Date and Time dialog box and you can choose how you want the date and time inserted in your document. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Date and Time dialog box.

At the bottom-right of the Date and Time dialog box there is an interesting check box entitled Update Automatically. If this check box is not selected, then when you click OK, the date is inserted in your document as text. If you select the check box, then the date is inserted as a DATE field. The difference between the two, of course, is that when a date is inserted as text, it is static; it doesn't change. If the DATE field is used, then the date is dynamic, and it always changes to reflect the current date.

If you are a keyboard-oriented person, then you can insert today's date by pressing Shift+Alt+D. This shortcut always inserts a DATE field, the same as if you had used the Date and Time dialog box and selected the Update Automatically check box.

Even though the Date and Time dialog box and the Shift+Alt+D shortcut do similar things (allow you to insert the date), there is no "association" between the two. Shift+Alt+D is an independent shortcut; it is not a shortcut for the Date and Time dialog box. This means that the settings in the Date and Time dialog box are not configuration settings for Shift+Alt+D. Instead, the keyboard shortcut always inserts the dynamic DATE field, regardless of how you last used the Date and Time dialog box.

The upshot of this distinction, of course, is that if you want to put a static, non-changing date into your document, you should either just type it or you should use the Date and Time dialog box with the Update Automatically check box unselected.

If you are insistent on using a keyboard shortcut, you will need to use Shift+Alt+D to insert the date, press the left arrow key until you are in the middle of the inserted date, and then press Shift+Ctrl+F9 to unlink the field. (Unlinking a field replaces the field code with the result of that field code. It effectively gets rid of the field.)

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11811) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Different Ways of Inserting Dates.

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

Easily Deploying Customizations

When you create a whole set of customizations for Excel, you may want to share them with others in your office or ...

Discover More

Word Find and Replace (Special Offer)

Word Find and Replace can help super-charge your document editing tasks. Another way you can increase your ...

Discover More

Count of Underlined or Struck-Through Words

When working with documents (particularly those prepared by others) it is not unusual to need to count words that possess ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! Are you ready to harness the full power of Word 2013 to create professional documents? In this comprehensive guide you'll learn the skills and techniques for efficiently building the documents you need for your professional and your personal life. Check out Word 2013 In Depth today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Creating Compound Characters

Word provides access to a wide variety of characters either from the keyboard or from the Symbol dialog box. Up and above ...

Discover More

Using the Object Browser

Efficiently navigating through a document, particularly as it gets longer, can be a perpetual challenge. One tool you can ...

Discover More

Generating a List of Dates

When creating tracking documents in Word, you may need to come up with a series of dates in the document. You can type ...

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 4 - 3?

2019-11-04 10:08:53

Ann C.

Typically I want to insert the long date not as a field, but a fixed date. I use the following simple macro, and have a QAT button, since I insert it frequently.

Sub InsertDate()
'
' InsertDate Macro
'
'
Selection.InsertDateTime DateTimeFormat:="MMMM d, yyyy", InsertAsField:= _
False, DateLanguage:=wdEnglishUS, CalendarType:=wdCalendarWestern, _
InsertAsFullWidth:=False
End Sub


This Site

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.

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.