• Global community
    • Language:
      • Deutsch
      • English
      • Español
      • Français
      • Português
  • 日本語コミュニティ
    Dedicated community for Japanese speakers
  • 한국 커뮤니티
    Dedicated community for Korean speakers
Exit
2

Inserting automatic date - updating a date field automatically fields into an inDesign document.

Participant ,
Aug 28, 2012 Aug 28, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I just fell over a silly lapse. I edited a document which has a "status date" and I missed out updating that status date. So I needed to return and edit a second time just to update the silly date.

I was wondering if there is not a possibility to set that date automatically. Looking in the help files, I only found automatic page numbers (but also there I was missing the "total numbers of pages" tag).

FYI: I'm using CS5.0 (ID 7.0.4).

Lucien.

TOPICS
How to

Views

74.8K

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines

correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , Aug 28, 2012 Aug 28, 2012

You should use a text variable. You can create one by choosing Type > Text Variables > Define. Use Type > Text Variables > Insert Variables to place the marker in a text frame.

Votes

Translate

Translate
Community Expert ,
Aug 28, 2012 Aug 28, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

You should use a text variable. You can create one by choosing Type > Text Variables > Define. Use Type > Text Variables > Insert Variables to place the marker in a text frame.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Participant ,
Aug 28, 2012 Aug 28, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thanks! I saw that "Text Variables" but didn't go further, because I thought of user defined variables. Helps even more, because the "last Page Number" is also present, and I missed it too.

One drawback: "Output date" does not include the PDF export! We export documents, and technically this is our "output". Used the "modification date" is quite the same or even better, as you may create a new output from an otherwise unmodified document.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Apr 16, 2020 Apr 16, 2020

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thank you so much! I really appreciate it.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Mar 19, 2015 Mar 19, 2015

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thanks. I had the same question.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Aug 28, 2012 Aug 28, 2012

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

ID has three types of date variables, Creation date, modification date, and output date.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jun 26, 2015 Jun 26, 2015

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

How do you create this using international standards? For example, 20/02/15 is 20 February 2015. The American way is not the international standards date form. BTW, I'm using InDesign CC 2015.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jun 26, 2015 Jun 26, 2015

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

When you define the variable you can edit the format to dd/MM/yyyy by typing directly in the field in the define dialog.  Note that the MM must be uppercase....

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Participant ,
Aug 11, 2021 Aug 11, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Why? Why do Americans have to go against the grain to not fit in with the rest of world. Ridiculous.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Sep 15, 2015 Sep 15, 2015

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I am also using text variables but with inconsistent results. I have set up a media bar. Consisting of various repeating copy. One of which is the file name and the modified date. This goes on all the work I produce.

I have the file name set to not include the file extension and the modified days to be dd/mm/yy

but if I copy my master text box onto a new or maybe a supplied Indesign file, the text reverts to the default text variable set up, i.e. date is long hand, 10 september 2015 rather than 10/09/15 and the file name has .indd extension on it.

There must be a way to set these variables up so that they do not revert.

Any ideas anyone?

Manythanks

Ian

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Engaged ,
Jul 21, 2017 Jul 21, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Close all documents and open any workspace other than Start > Go to Text Variables > Modify the default or create a custom variable (I prefer custom so you're not destroying default) > Set up the variable as desired > Open/create any document and insert the new variable.

Doing the above will set the variable at the preference level meaning it will be available for all documents. That way, you can set the variable and copy/paste and still keep your variable on any document.

With all documents closed, you can also set preferences for swatches, all styles including paragraph styles and character styles, etc. It's very handy to modify your preferences in this manner.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Oct 04, 2023 Oct 04, 2023

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

LATEST

Hi! I know this is eons old, but I am trying to have the date auto-append to the file name when outputing as a PDF...just wondering if this is what you were doing and how. I have searched all the preferences, both application and PDF menu and don't see an obvious way to do it.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines