Inserting a date

[ryan83]

I new to Filemaker, and I have created a letterhead, and at the top of the letterhead, I want the current date to be displayed. By current date, I mean whatever day I decide to write a letter, I automatically want that date displayed on the letterhead. How do I go about doing this. I created a field called "Today's Date" and set the type to "date", tried running some scripts I read about, but can't get it to work. What I am doing wrong.

[LaRetta]

If you want it to always show the current date, go to the top of your form in layout mode and type // ... two forward slashes by themselves (no spaces).

You can also grab it by using FM menus > Insert > Date. There are other cool options there as well.

You can then right-click on this // and change the date format to display as October 26, 2005 or whatever you wish. Then, each time you view the document, the current date will be displayed.

LaRetta

[ryan83]

I tried typing // at the top my form to show the date, but when I go to preview, all that shows up is - 10/ -- how do I get the day and year to appear?

[LaRetta]

Go back into Layout mode. Select the //. Handles will appear (black boxes at the four corners). Then grab one corner and drag the box larger. OR ... even better to start using ... View > Object Size. Click the in/cm/px letters (on the cute box that appears) until it becomes px. When you select your //, you will notice the bottom two boxes. They will show something like 54 and 16 (width and height). Change the 54 to something like 130 then tab out of it.

Object size is one of my most useful tools.

L

[ryan83]

Thank you LaRetta. Everything worked out!