[AccessD] Short Date Input Mask question

Arthur,

    Key strokes for date fields could be minimized by setting an input mask incorporating pre-filled default month & year.

    If it could be of any help, you could look at my sample db named InputMask_dynamic at Rogers Access Library (other developers section) - http://www.rogersaccesslibrary.com 

    Amongst other things (e.g. phone nos etc.), it demonstrates input mask for date field, with desired month & year pre-filled. It may be mentioned that the option is not confined merely to the current month & year (which of course is the default option when the data entry form opens). The user can set any other desired values for either.

Regards,
A.D.Tejpal
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Gustav Brock 
  To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving 
  Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 15:15
  Subject: Re: [AccessD] Short Date Input Mask question


  Hi Arthur

  It's not a shortcoming. Input masks are called this as their purpose
  is to force the user to follow an input sequence - not to type
  "something" that can be interpreted as a date string.

  As Bryan has stated, one of the features of Access is that it does a
  pretty good job of transferring "something" typed in a textbox into a
  full date string. As such, it can assume a default year; could Access
  also assume a default month (so "20" would turn into "2004-03-20") we
  would approach Paradise.

  Having said that, I once used input masks for entry of time on the
  format hh:nn where the user can either tab into the textbox or click
  at some arbitrary position in it and type ahead while preserving
  default values for all digits. As you all know, input must be limited
  to 0-2, 0-9 OR 0-4, 0-5 for the first three positions - not an easy
  task, but it can be done. The inputmask helps as it allows you to set
  the start and length of the selection no matter what the user has
  typed or how he/she is editing.

  /gustav


  > The standard short date input mask (99/99/0000;0;_) has a shortcoming
  > that I hate: you have to type 04/04/04 to get April 4th 2004. The year
  > handling is nice but the month and day suck. The mask won't let you type
  > 4/4/04. Is there an alternative mask that will respond intelligently to
  > such input? Or should I instead just remove all the input masks from all
  > the date fields?

  > TIA,
  > Arthur