WD98: How to Create Ordinal (Legal) Dates in Form Fields

• Microsoft Word 98 Macintosh Edition

SUMMARY

This article provides a method you can use to automatically display dates in Arabic ordinal form (sometimes referred to as legal form) using Word form fields.

The following are examples of dates in ordinal form (ordinal numbers indicate the order in an ordered sequence):

   23rd day of February, 1994

   March 21st, 1994

   Tuesday the 15th, 1994

MORE INFORMATION

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   http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/refguide/default.asp

   Sub GetOrdinalDates()
      Dim fDate As FormField
      ' If no documents are open or if no form fields
      ' exist in the active document, or for other
      ' errors, exit this routine.
      On Error GoTo errhandler
      ' Replace the word Date with the name of your
      ' form field with your formfield bookmark name.
      Set fDate = ActiveDocument.FormFields("Date")
      ' Is the result of the form field a valid date?
      If Not IsDate(fDate.Result) Then Exit Sub
      ' Determine date format.
      Select Case Day(fDate.Result)
         Case 1, 21, 31
            daysuffix$ = Day(fDate.Result) & "st"
         Case 2, 22
            daysuffix$ = Day(fDate.Result) & "nd"
         Case 3, 23
            daysuffix$ = Day(fDate.Result) & "rd"
         Case Else
            daysuffix$ = Day(fDate.Result) & "th"
      End Select
      
      ' Use ONE of the following formats.
      ' (Remove the remark (apostrophe) from the
      ' command lines that produce the desired format.)
      
      ' - Format example: 24th day of February, 1998
   '   fDate.Result = daysuffix$ & " day of " _
   '      & Format$(fDate.Result, "mmmm, yyyy")

      ' - Format example: February 24th, 1998
   '   fDate.Result = Format$(fDate.Result, "mmmm") & " " & _
   '       daysuffix$ & Format$(fDate.Result, ", yyyy")

      ' - Format example: Tuesday the 24th, 1998
   '   fDate.Result = Format$(fDate.Result, "dddd") & " the " & _
   '      daysuffix$ & Format$(fDate.Result, ", yyyy")
   errhandler:
   End Sub

   ARTICLE-ID: Q181058
   TITLE     : OFF98: How to Run Sample Code from Knowledge Base Articles

Create the Form

NOTE: There must be two form fields in the form for this example to work.

1. On the View menu, point to Toolbars, and then click Forms.

2. On the Forms toolbar, select "Text Form Field" and then click the Options button.

3. From the Type list, choose Text.

4. Under Field Settings, replace "Text1" with the word "Date" (excluding the quotation marks).

5. In the Exit list box under "Run Macro On," select the "GetOrdinalDates" macro.

6. Click OK.

7. Repeat step 2 to insert a second form field.

8. On the Tools menu, click Protect Document.

9. Select the Forms option and then click OK. Word moves the insertion point to the first form field.

10. In the form field you have designated to be the date, type the numeric date value. For example, type "12/10/97" (without the quotation marks).

11. Press TAB to move to the next form field.

   ARTICLE-ID: Q117267
   TITLE     : WD: How to Create Ordinal (Legal) Date Formatting in FORM
               Fields

REFERENCES

For more information about getting help with Visual Basic for Applications, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q163435
   TITLE     : VBA: Programming Resources for Visual Basic for 
               Applications