Auto-updating Date?

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eolake
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Auto-updating Date?

Post by eolake »

I have changed my letterhead from AppleWorks to Nisus, because AW's text display *sucks*, the bad spacing makes it barely readable.

But I don't find any way to make an auto-updating Date field in NWE. Is there one?

If not, will it be in 2.0?
cchapin
Posts: 424
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Location: Nagoya, Japan

Post by cchapin »

Not that I have found, and I don't see it on the feature list for version 2.0. This is on my wish list, too. When it is introduced (as I expect it will be), I hope that users are given a fair bit of flexibility in setting the date format.

I would be satisfied with (and would actually prefer) a static date that can be inserted automatically, say at the time of a document's creation. Perhaps this could be accomplished through a Perl macro or AppleScript, but that's beyond my ability at this point.

--Craig
charles
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Post by charles »

Hi:

We are working on adding an auto-updating date field, among other auto text features. It will not make it into 2.0, however. Hopefully soon after that though.

-Charles
Charles Jolley
Nisus Software, Inc.
cchapin
Posts: 424
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Location: Nagoya, Japan

Post by cchapin »

It's nice to hear that an auto-date feature is in the works. Now I'm curious what "other auto text features" you guys are working on. I've had some thoughts about this, which maybe I should share in a separate thread.

As for the auto-date field, I hope the format of the date (and time) is customizable. Also, I would appreciate having the option of inserting the date either as text or as an automatically updating field -- though the former option might not be high on others' wish lists.

--Craig
arjay
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Joined: 2004-08-22 07:13:26
Location: Jacksonville, FL

Post by arjay »

cchapin wrote:Also, I would appreciate having the option of inserting the date either as text or as an automatically updating field -- though the former option might not be high on others' wish lists.

--Craig
I agree--would like to see the choice of inserting a text date or an auto-updating field. For most of what I do, the text date will suffice. Although, for some of my documents, it would be nice to have the date the document was last modified inserted. I routinely do this in the footer of training documents I prepare.

arjay
charles
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Post by charles »

FWIW, I believe Nisus Writer Express comes with a macro to insert just the date text. Auto-updating dates, as I said before, is on the list for a future release.

Cheers,
-Charles
Charles Jolley
Nisus Software, Inc.
arjay
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Joined: 2004-08-22 07:13:26
Location: Jacksonville, FL

Post by arjay »

charles wrote:FWIW, I believe Nisus Writer Express comes with a macro to insert just the date text. Auto-updating dates, as I said before, is on the list for a future release.

Cheers,
-Charles
Indeed it does! I had forgotten to install the macros until I was going through the downloaded user guide and found mention of it there. Thanks!

arjay
cchapin
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Location: Nagoya, Japan

Post by cchapin »

I also had overlooked that. Thanks. I'm slowly working my way through a book on Perl. I hope that by the end of it I'll be able to figure out how to change the Date Stamp macro to format the date differently.

--Craig
cchapin
Posts: 424
Joined: 2004-02-25 18:28:40
Location: Nagoya, Japan

Post by cchapin »

Well, I didn't wait until I finished the Perl book. Taking my meager knowledge of Perl thus far, I concocted a macro to insert the date. It seems to work fine, but don't expect elegant coding from me yet.

In its default state, the macro will insert the date (as text, not as an automatically updating code) in this format:

   September 5, 2004

By commenting out or uncommenting a few lines, you could easily have it produce the date and/or time in the following formats:

   Sunday, September 5, 2004 (9:00 p.m.)
   Sunday, September 5, 2004
   5 September 2004
   9:00 p.m.
   21:00:00

With adjustments, other formats are possible. I've used comments liberally to make it easier for others to modify the macro.

If anyone is interested in using the macro, let me know. I'm not sure how best to share it with others, but we can figure that out if there is any interest.

--Craig
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