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Archiver > TMG > 2006-07 > 1151773922


From: Terry Reigel <>
Subject: Entering Dates - was TMG-D Digest
Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2006 13:13:57 -0400
In-Reply-To: <20060701150907.9462.qmail@web35509.mail.mud.yahoo.com>


On Sat, 1 Jul 2006 08:09:07 -0700 (PDT), C L Cope wrote:
> I am a newbie to TMG.

Welcome to TMG, and to TMG-L, Connie! <g>

> I have entered about 400 names and
> have discovered that I have a mess in the dates. I
> entered some as January 10, 2000 and others as 1/10/2000.
> Before I go back and change and reenter of the incorrect
> dates I need to know how to make this not happen again.
>
> I have been to File - Preferences - Date Format and
> changed it to Mmm/dd/yyyy and clicked apply. It has
> changed the dates on the Person View Details but not on
> the reports. On the journal report it prints as 10 Jan
> 2000 in some places and in others Jan 10 2000. I want
> the above format but more important I want consistency.
> What am I doing wrong?

The good news is you don't have any cleanup to do. No matter how you
enter dates, if TMG can understand what you meant it records the date
as a numeric code. The date is then displayed in whatever format you
set in preferences, and appears in reports according to the setting on
the Dates tab of report Options.

The problem would appear to be that you have some reports set with one
format, and others with a different one. To fix the issue, go to
Options in the reports with the wrong format and change the date
setting.

Now, a couple of exceptions to the above:

- Irregular dates - if you enter something TMG can't interpret, it
will be recorded as an "irregular date." Examples might include
"second Sunday of Lent" or "a week after his mother died." Irregular
dates are always output exactly as entered, and ages cannot be
computed from them.

- Ambiguous all numeric formats - if you use all numbers, and the day
is 12 or less, TMG can't be sure which is the day and which is the
month. In that case, it uses the order of the day and month in your
display format to determine which is which.

- Non-date fields - dates entered in Memo fields, sources, citations,
and other non-date fields are not interpreted. They are recorded just
as you enter them.

Terry Reigel

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