How to put year and month in a variable

[Guest]

I want to create a variable that just shows the current year (like 2010) and another variable that shows the month and year (December 2010). I have had no luck. I tried modifying the definition of unneeded system variables. That works, but it seems prone to "slippage": when importing variables from one doc to another, it's too easy to overwrite the customized system variables. Or maybe there's something in Frame that is resetting them to the default. Anyway, I'd prefer to create new variables to do this. Here's some of what I have tried:

Variable Definition                         How it shows in the doc

<$monthname> <$year>     <$monthname<$year

<$monthname\> <$year\>   (it showed nothing)

<$monthname>> <$year>>   <$monthname<$year

I am using Frame 8.0p277, with Windows XP SP3.

Any advice will be appreciated.

[Guest]

Cheryl,

I too have FM 8.0p277 (on Vista though) and see the same behavior. The help states: "You cannot use system variable building blocks for user variables." The only option I see for date variables is to modify the existing date variables to meet your needs. I'm curious whether others have alternate solutions though.

Hope that helps.

Janice

[Guest]

I am using Framemaker 9, and I, too, tried to create a user variable that incorporated the system variables. It did not wo

rk. So, as Janice, suggested, I just modified an existing system variable to suit my purpose.