Specifying formats for date fields

Contents > Editing objects on layouts > Selecting and working with objects on a layout > Specifying formats for date fields

Specifying formats for date fields

You can control how FileMaker Pro displays the values in date fields and calculation fields with date results.

To specify formats for date fields:

1.	In Layout mode, select one or more date fields or calculation fields with a date result.

For more information, see Selecting objects.

2.	Choose Format menu > Date.

3.	In the Date Format dialog box, select the formats you want to use.

You see an example of the options you choose in the Sample area.

To display dates

Do this

Exactly as entered

Select Leave date formatted as entered.

In a predefined format

Select Format as and choose a format.

To change the separator between parts of a numeric date, for Numeric separator, type another character.

In a custom format

Select Custom and choose options and separator characters for day of week, month, day of month, and year.

With leading zeros (as in
01/02/99) or leading spaces in numeric parts of dates

In the Leading Characters area, choose Zero, Space, or <None> for For day numbers, For month numbers, or both. (This option is not available if you've chosen Leave date formatted as entered.)

With different text formatting

Click Text Format. In the Text Format dialog box, choose text attributes, then click OK. For more information, see Specifying text formats for fields.

Using a different Japanese date display (if you're using a font that contains Japanese characters)

For Display As, choose a display type.

4.

Click OK.

Important No matter how you format a date field in Layout mode, whenever you click or tab into the field in Browse mode, FileMaker Pro displays the date with a four-digit year. FileMaker recommends that you always enter dates with four-digit years. If you enter dates with two-digit years, they are converted to four-digit year dates as described in Conversion of dates with two-digit years.

Notes

When Leave date formatted as entered is selected, FileMaker Pro will display dates with four-digit years, even if you originally entered the dates with two-digit years. Use the Format as or Custom options described above to display dates with two-digit years.

Be sure to size the date field on the layout according to the format you choose. For example, the date Monday, May 5, 2008 needs more room than 5/5/08. For more information, see Resizing and reshaping objects.

To format a date symbol (which displays the current date), select the symbol "//" (two slashes) in Layout mode, choose Format menu > Date, and then format it as you would a date field as described above. For more information about the date symbol, see Inserting the date, page number, or other variable onto a layout.

To make it easier to enter dates in a field in Browse mode, you can set up the field to display a drop-down calendar.

For more information about defining date fields, see Defining date fields.

Related topic

Defining conditional formatting for layout objects

Contents > Editing objects on layouts > Selecting and working with objects on a layout > Specifying formats for date fields