Notes From Nature Talk

Clarify date entry formats

  • escholzia by escholzia

    Example says to enter dates in format shown, but it isn't clear how to do that with the current date fields. Should dates be entered with slash marks? If so, in which date field?
    Also, dates don't go back far enough. How do I enter the year 1903?

    Posted

  • GeoffRoynon by GeoffRoynon

    I have a specimen from 1929 and cannot enter the date as the pull-down menu stops at 1930. Tried entering it manually but that doesn't work so had to enter an invalid date.

    Posted

  • xairbusdriver by xairbusdriver

    I think that text about "format shown" may be confusing. There is really no 'options' for 'formatting' the dates. As Geoff mentioned, the Month, Day and Year are available in the drop-down/pop-up lists in each field.

    • The Month will always be a two-digit number (01 thru 12), a space, a
      hyphen ("-"), another space and then the Month name; "03 - May" or
      "09 - September".
    • Likewise, the Day 'format' is always a two-digit number (01 thru
      31[as appropriate]).
    • Finally, the Year is always a four-digit number.

    The list has been updated at least once (years added to both ends). I don't know exactly what they start and end with now. It's possible that Geoff might have tried entering the 'out-of-range' Year before the change(s). I dunno.

    I entered a Year that was in the 189x range, just yesterday. But I don't use any of the menus/lists. After all, the only thing we really need to enter are numbers. 😃 Typing "04" in the Month field will automatically bring "04 - April" into the field. Tab to the next field (Day) and type two more numbers and the day of the Month is entered. Same method works for the Year except, of course, it will be four numbers. And all those keys are on a single row on your keyboard! How convenient! And it's faster (even for a 'hunt-and-peck' "typist" like me!) than using the mouse and sometimes scrolling a very l o n g w a y in that Year list!

    BTW, you will need to type the numbers fairly quickly, at least you shouldn't delay more than a half second between each one.

    Posted