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Inserting Automatic Date Codes in your
documents
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Q: |
I have a specific
letter template that I like to use when I'm creating business
correspondence. I always remember to type in the recipient's name,
address, and of course the body of the letter. However, I always
forget to type in today's date. I print out the letter and - if I'm
lucky - I discover that it has an old date on it. If I'm not lucky,
the recipient gets mailed a letter with last month's date on it. Is
there any way to automatically make Word update that date when I
open the letter? >Emilio, Boston NY
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A: |
Sure thing, Emilio. You
can use an Automatic Date Code in Word. Here's how it works:
open up your document (or your template) and delete the current
date. Now, click on Insert > Date & Time from the toolbar
(this is with Word XP). Pick the specific date format you want, and
make sure you click on the checkbox at the bottom that says
Update Automatically. Click OK and save your document. That's
it. Next time you open up the document, you'll see today's date
there.
The only caveat is this: if you want
to make sure you know when you saved a particular document, I
suggest saving the document with the date in the filename because
then next time you open up that document, the date will get updated.
For example: you send someone a letter on November 1st, 2004 and
save it. You open that letter back up on February 2nd to see when
you initially send it, but your date code updates to Feb 2nd. So,
what I do is just make sure to save the file as "letter to joe
smith 2004-11-01.doc" for example. This is just something I do.
Hope this helps. We teach more about the automatic date codes in our
Microsoft Word 201 course. |
By Richard Rost
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