Mysterious Dates

Peter Merton · Post by **Peter Merton** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 12:20 pm

Since 1999 I have kept a diary in my word processor. When I got Atlantis I changed over to using it for the purpose. The present diary started on January 01, 2007. Over the last few weeks a strange thing happens. All dates going back for about three months change themselves to the current date. This has happened a few times. It’s a tedious job going back and correcting the dates. Any idea why this happens? Perhaps I must consider another way of keeping a diary. I am using Atlantis 1.6.4.1

Post by **Robert** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 1:07 pm

Hi Peter,
You probably have checked “Update automatically” at the bottom of the “Insert | Date & Time…” dialog. Now here is from the corresponding help page:

“Automatic update of date and time
When the Update automatically box is checked in the Date & Time dialog, Atlantis inserts date or time as fields with automatic update.
Otherwise, Atlantis inserts date or time as ordinary text strings. These will remain as originally set and will not be automatically updated.”

So as a general rule, if you want dates to remain as originally inserted, you’ll have to uncheck that option in the “Insert | Date & Time…” dialog.
Alternatively, you could leave that option checked, and whenever appropriate, you could insert dates as current dates (“Shift+Alt+D” by default), and immediately right-click the inserted date. Then choose “Field (Current Date) > Convert To Text” from the pop-up menu. “Textual” dates will never be updated automatically.
HTH.
Cheers,
Robert

Peter Merton · Post by **Peter Merton** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 10:34 pm

Hi Robert,
Thanks for the help. I shall do that. I also found out later that if I do a preview (Ctrl F2) then the dates immediatley change. As long as I quickly do a Ctrl Z before anything else, they all revert to the correct dates, but of course are probably still volatile becuase of the way I entered them. I shall follow your advice.
Thanks for the help.
Cheers,Peter.

Post by **admin** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 7:25 pm

When the "Tools | Options... > General > Update fields on print" option is checked, and you print your document or switch to the Print Preview mode, Atlantis automatically updates all the "auto-updateable" fields in your active document. If you need "static" ("textual") dates, you should do as suggested by Robert.

If you have many "automatic" dates in your document, you can easily convert them all to "static" text. For this:

1) press Ctrl+A to "select all",
2) right-click any "dynamic" date within the selection,
3) choose the "Fields (Current Date) (N) | Convert To Text" menu command.

Peter Merton · Post by **Peter Merton** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 10:38 pm

All sorted out now. This has been a great help. Thanks to everybody. Regards, Peter.