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How to insert an automatic date in a Publisher document (on Mac)


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Hello everyone!

I am new to this forum and new to using the Affinity Publisher. I am creating an invoice template. And I would like to add a text frame with an automatic date in the letterhead. You know, that the document/Publisher updates the date automatically whenever I work on the document. But I can't find where I do that in Publisher.

Can anyone in the community help me? Thank you

Edited by DKR
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Hi DKR,

Welcome to the Affinity Forum,

to place an automatic date you can use the field feature. Open its panel via menu "View" > "Studio" > "Fields" and place any of the four date types with a double-click on its label into a text frame.

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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AFAI can tell those don't auto update for me and thus seem to be of more static nature, I tried the "actual date & time" one here, which in my understanding should probably update the timestamp then, but doesn't.

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25 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

AFAI can tell those don't auto update for me and thus seem to be of more static nature, I tried the "actual date & time" one here, which in my understanding should probably update the timestamp then, but doesn't.

Okay, we'll see if it works for me tomorrow. But thanks for the warning.

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Actual date and time are static. Best choice here would be Saved field, at least there is the current date and time displayed, but this means it changes every time you save.

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6 hours ago, Joachim_L said:

Actual date and time are static.

I wonder of what sense that one makes then as a field, especially when it is called "actual" and has just a one time static behavior.

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Wouldn't one of the dates in the Document Statistics section be more what was asked for in the initial post of this topic:

image.png.2607958c745cf81f11afacfcce88d2f5.png

"Saved" or "Printed" seem like good candidates.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
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1 hour ago, v_kyr said:

I wonder of what sense that one makes then as a field, especially when it is called "actual" and has just a one time static behavior.

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

Wouldn't one of the dates in the Document Statistics section be more what was asked for in the initial post of this topic:

It depends. For instance I have a document with my letterhead including a date field. I use this document for all my letters of 2019. Every letter shall have the date I am writing it, and once a letter was written its date should not change when I open, save or print the document again.

For that use the "saved" or "printed" date would not work because it would change the dates of every letter in my document.
Also, of course, "Created" would not work because it would be only the date I had saved the document the first time (for instance to create the master page with my letterhead) and will remain that date forever (unless on "Save As").

So, in this scenario, it appears only "Date & Time" in "General information" will paste the actual date to a new letter. Therefore I need to paste it at the moment I want it; it is not useful to be entered on a master page, but an empty frame for it with formatting can be useful there. It is a static value, it is no clock which runs + changes the text entry permanently. If it would then I could not use it, because it would change the dates of all letters in my document as soon I open my document (similar to the "saved" or "printed" field).

 

 

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9 minutes ago, thomaso said:

For that use the "saved" or "printed" date would not work because it would change the dates of every letter in my document.

A Date Stamp field with similar options to what we have in the created, saved, printed fields would solve this problem. 

I'm hoping that the Fields Panel will get a complete overhaul in the future. Starting point could be inDesign text variables but with more oomph.

Microsoft Word contains a ton of variable fields that would be useful to have in Publisher too.

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2 minutes ago, Seneca said:

A Date Stamp field with similar options to what we have in the created, saved, printed fields would solve this problem. 

Isn't that exactly the field "Date & Time" in "General information" ? – Or what's its difference to a "Date Stamp"?

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1 hour ago, thomaso said:

Every letter shall have the date I am writing it, and once a letter was written its date should not change when I open, save or print the document again

Doesn't Created handle that one?

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
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    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
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1 hour ago, thomaso said:

Isn't that exactly the field "Date & Time" in "General information" ? – Or what's its difference to a "Date Stamp"?

Timestamp once assigned doesn't change.

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2 hours ago, thomaso said:

Every letter shall have the date I am writing it, and once a letter was written its date should not change when I open, save or print the document again.

Well as you can add/place static text yourself in such cases, there isn‘t much need for such static fields.

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1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

Doesn't Created handle that one? 

As I described before it does not. Why do you ask?

1 hour ago, Seneca said:

Timestamp once assigned doesn't change. 

Fine. Then you can apply your requested date and/or stamp already.

3 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

Well as you can add/place static text yourself in such cases, there isn‘t much need for such static fields.

Yes. So what? Using the field you can paste date (+ time) with 1 click. Of course you alternatively can type a date glyph by glyph. This is not a disadvantage of this field but the nature of a date. If you want a date which changes itself you can use the "Saved" or "Printed" field.

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45 minutes ago, thomaso said:

As I described before it (Created) does not. Why do you ask?

Because I missed the part about Created in your response above. Sorry.

However, you said:
 

Quote

Also, of course, "Created" would not work because it would be only the date I had saved the document the first time (for instance to create the master page with my letterhead) and will remain that date forever (unless on "Save As").

Presumably you would save copies of the correspondence you were sending, and so you would be using Save As after writing something. In that case, Created would work.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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8 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Presumably you would save copies of the correspondence you were sending, and so you would be using Save As after writing something.

What for? I can't imagine any use of such a copy. I have the .afpub. Why should I copy it? That makes me wonder even more that for you it seems to be "Presumably".

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Just now, thomaso said:

What for? I can't imagine any use of such a copy. I have the .afpub. Why should I copy it? That makes me wonder even more that for you it seems to be "Presumably".

One of us is not understanding something, or the other person :)

You want to have a date in the letter you're writing, and it should be the date you wrote (and saved) the letter. Created does that, because you will either create a new file, or open your template, add your text, and Save (or Save As) the file so you have a copy of it. The Saved copy will have the date that you created that copy of the file, and the copy that you export or print will also contain it.

Or are you saying that when you use a template, and Save As, that Created is not updated? If so, I agree that it doesn't provide a solution for your need.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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4 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

One of us is not understanding something, or the other person :)

True. In my opinion it happens because one of us is not reading but answering quickly ;)

4 hours ago, thomaso said:
6 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Wouldn't one of the dates in the Document Statistics section be more what was asked for in the initial post of this topic:

It depends. For instance I have a document with my letterhead including a date field. I use this document for all my letters of 2019. Every letter shall have the date I am writing it, and once a letter was written its date should not change when I open, save or print the document again.

Because we don't know yet how DKR wants to use her/his template AND because v_kyr appeared not to see the static date/time field as possibly useful I did layout/describe the scenario (all letters in 1 document), both for v_kyr and possibly for DKR, too, where the static field can make sense.
– And then you replied/asked if "Created" would not work ... and even let me know in your next response that it would work ...
– And in between Seneca was requesting for a static Date Stamp, which does not change once assigned.

Quite confusing – or, with other words, a useless conversation finally.

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4 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

One of us is not understanding something, or the other person

I think Thomaso's was describing his scenario where he has a single APub document for all his letters. i.e. Each letter is created on a new page in that one APub document.

Not a separate APub document for each letter/invoice.

 

8 hours ago, thomaso said:

For instance I have a document with my letterhead including a date field. I use this document for all my letters of 2019

 

To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.

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8 hours ago, thomaso said:

I did layout/describe the scenario (all letters in 1 document)

Thanks. That was not clear to me from your earlier posting where you said:

13 hours ago, thomaso said:

For instance I have a document with my letterhead including a date field. I use this document for all my letters of 2019.

I interpreted that as you have a saved letterhead that you will use for all letters. You did not say there that you save all the letters in that one document. My interpretation was that you have a letterhead that incorporates the date field, and you open that letterhead and provide text, then save the file separately.

That (Save As) does work with Created, by the way. When you do the Save As the date changes to the current date. But if you mae changes and merely Save the date is static.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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16 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

That (Save As) does work with Created, by the way. When you do the Save As the date changes to the current date. But if you mae changes and merely Save the date is static.

This also was mentioned already in that same post when describing the scenario:

14 hours ago, thomaso said:

Also, of course, "Created" would not work because it would be only the date I had saved the document the first time (for instance to create the master page with my letterhead) and will remain that date forever (unless on "Save As").

Therefore, I just could not understand where you were heading to by repeating this already mentioned behavior of the "Created" field over and over again - as in your last post, too.

However, yes, indeed I did not express literally that there should be 1 document only containing all letters – though I had replied that I don't see a use in copying it – which limited my intention down to only 1 document.

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On 8/13/2019 at 12:41 PM, v_kyr said:

I wonder of what sense that one makes then as a field, especially when it is called "actual" and has just a one time static behavior.

One of the meanings of "actual" is "existing in fact or reality" -- IOW, not just potentially existent. And at least in US English, it can also mean "existing now; current" ... but the Cambridge Dictionary grammar section says that it "does not refer to time." Go figure. O.o

Anyway, a dynamic date reference would be a variable, & I don't think Affinity Publisher supports any variables besides page numbers. Can you think of any others?

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@R C-R, I guess in this case of using "actual" related to the date field it is a translation issue between the English and the German UI: whereas it says "current" in one it is named "aktuell" in the other.  In German "current" means "aktuell", whereas "actually" means "eigentlich", which you also found as "in fact or reality".

1476406620_datecurrent.jpg.524ebd85d096c4c2bdad34bcbe5f84b6.jpg  153882196_dateaktuell.jpg.a1957ce1d5ca898a6f9b85401ee8bc7a.jpg

However, a real "current" date field sounds like a clock that runs constantly and updates itself. The fact that this field is actually not actual in the meaning of 'up-to-date' all time, might have given the impression that this field is neither current nor useful for those who expected a running clock.

p.s.: I think the size of an Artistic Text Frame is a working variable in Publisher, too. Or any feature where a user action calls another action automatically, as for instance a context menu or the text-overflow eye-icon. But possibly here I misuse the programmers term "variable" ;)

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8 minutes ago, thomaso said:

However, a real "current" date field sounds like a clock that runs constantly and updates itself. The fact that this field is actually not actual in the meaning of 'up-to-date' all time, might have given the impression that this field is neither current nor useful for those who expected a running clock.

True, but I think the best it could do is still "static" in the sense that it would always be the last saved date, which may or may not be what is expected or desired.

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