Microsoft Word for the Mac Woes for the MetaMind

November 16, 2007 8:35 PM

Microsoft Word woe -- I have Word for the Mac (2002) version....Anyway, everytime I open up a cover letter with a previous date, it automatically updates the date. I have checked all the auto format settings and I suspect it has something to do with a macro. But when I go into using some sorta macro, it asks me to install visual basic...I get a bit more confused at this point...anybody else have this trouble with dates?
posted by snap_dragon to technology (7 comments total)

I think there will be something in the preferences or tools or options menu that you can uncheck, something along the lines of "Update automatic links at open" or maybe instead of links it says "fields." I'm sorry, I don't have this version of Word. This is a setting that Word will save and keep the same every time you start it up, so once you find the magic box and uncheck it you shouldn't have this problem anymore.
posted by Eringatang at 8:54 PM on November 16, 2007

Eringatang is right. When you click insert dat and time, there's a little box that says update automatically. I bet it's checked right now. Just delete the date that's already there, insert new data but leave the box unchecked. Next time you open the document, it won't update to current date.
posted by special-k at 9:05 PM on November 16, 2007

data=date
posted by special-k at 9:23 PM on November 16, 2007

Go to the insert menu>date and time> then you should see a list of formats and a checkbox for "automatically update"; clear the checkbox and that should do it.

I hate how Microsoft often thinks it knows what I want to do better than I do.
posted by TedW at 3:50 AM on November 17, 2007

or in other words, what special-k said.
posted by TedW at 3:51 AM on November 17, 2007

There are two different choices for the auto date field. One is NOW() and one is...uhm there's a different one. TODAY() maybe?

One autoupdates upon opening the document, and the other doesn't update until you click it. I had this issue before, and changing it to the correct auto-entry fixed it.
posted by TomMelee at 5:56 AM on November 17, 2007

Of course, if you're putting today's date in a letter and you never want it to change, you could, you know, just type it in.

/luddite
posted by flabdablet at 3:49 PM on November 17, 2007