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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.	Click Inspector in the layout bar, then click Data.

3.	In the Data Formatting area, click Date , then select the formats you want to use from the Format list.

 

To display dates	Do this
Exactly as entered	For Format, select As entered.
In a predefined format	For Format, select a format. To change the separator between parts of a numeric date, for Numeric separator, type another character.
In a custom format	For 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 character area, choose <None>, Zero, Space for For day numbers, For month numbers, or both. (This option is not available if you've chosen As entered.)
With different text formatting	Select text options using the Appearance tab of the Inspector. See Specifying text formats for fields.
Using a different Japanese date display (if you’re using a font that contains Japanese characters)	In the Japanese area, for Numeral type, choose a display type.
Using the current system formats for dates	For Format, select Short System Date (for example, 11/11/2014) or Long System Date (for example, Tuesday, November 11, 2014). FileMaker Pro formats dates based on the current system formats when the file is opened.

4.	Press Enter or Tab, or click outside the Inspector to apply the changes.

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 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 Custom option or one of the two-digit year options on the Format list 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, 2014 needs more room than 5/5/14. See Resizing and reshaping objects.

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To format a date symbol (which displays the current date), select the symbol {{CurrentDate}} in Layout mode, and then use the Data Formatting area of the Inspector to 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 About date fields.

Related topics 

Defining conditional formatting for layout objects