Autofields

If you want to display a custom date, page number, page count, author name, document name and document version in your document, this feature can prove useful.

To insert autofields,

1. Click where you want the autofield to appear.
2. Click More > Fields tab > Autofields.
3. Choose an autofield to be inserted. For example, if you want to add the current date, click on the date field. Make sure you place the cursor in the required place in your document before inserting the autofields.

Working with Date Fields

In an auto-date field, you can insert a date field anywhere in your document and have the option to configure the format of the date, locale and timezone, add or subtract days and exclude days as per your requirements. Automatic date updates help eliminate the tedious chore of manually deleting prior dates.

Field Types - An Overview

Today's Date - You can select this to insert the current date.

Dynamic Today's Date - When you insert a Dynamic Today's Date field, the date in the document will be updated automatically every time the document is opened. So, for example, if you started preparing a document yesterday but opened it again today to finish it, this field renders today's date.

Document Created Date - Use this to insert the document creation date.

Document Last Edited Date - If you select this, the date on which the document was last edited will be inserted.

Create Custom Date Field - The custom date field provides an easy way to display a future or past date, that is, x number of years, months, weeks or days into the future or the past. You can avoid calculating those dates.

Inserting a Date field

To insert a date field,

• Place the cursor where you want the date to be displayed.
• Click More > Fields.
• Under Autofields, choose the Date field.



• From the dropdown list, you can choose any type according to your requirements.

Let us see how to create a custom date field with an example.

Creating a Custom Date Field

A common requirement in documents is to insert a custom date that can be preset and reused whenever required without making adjustments every time. For instance, you might want to render the current date, a "best before" date or an expiry date in your document. In these cases, the Custom Date Field option under 'Autofields' has you covered.

We can learn how to insert a custom date field with an example. Let's say we want the date of today +21 days from today's date. We can do it by following the below steps:

• Place the cursor where you want the date to be displayed.
• Click More > Fields.
• Under Autofields, choose the Date field.
• Select Create Custom Date Field.



• A dialog box opens where you can configure the following:

1. Field Name : Enter any name for the date field.



2. Preset date value: Select any date from the list of dates given.



3. Change Locale Settings: Set appropriate locale, date format and time zone.



Defining a Custom Date Format

Apart from the list of date formats available in the dropdown list, you can also set a custom date format as per your requirements.



On choosing Custom, you can define a custom date format. Click Learn More for information about more supported formats.



The following shortcuts render the date and time in the corresponding formats as mentioned below.


Shortcut	Renders
D	Date in single digit (1-9)
DD	Date in two digits (01-31)
M	Months in single digit (1-12)
MM	Months in two digits (01-12)
MMM	Months in short text format (Jan-Dec)
MMMM	Months as full names (January-December)
YY	Year in two digits (00-99)
YYYY	Year in four digits (2021)
EEE	Day in short text format (Sun-Sat)
EEEE	Days as full names (Sunday-Saturday)
hh:mm:ss	Time with hour, minutes, seconds and meridiem. (04:57:26 PM)
h:mm:ss	Time with hour in a single digit, minutes, seconds and meridiem. (4:57:26 PM)
hh:mm	Time with hour, minutes, and meridiem. (04:57 PM)
h:mm	Time with hour in a single digit, minutes, and meridiem. (04:57 PM)
HH	Hours in 24 hour time format (00-23)
H	Hours as a single digit in 24 hour time format (0-23)
hh	Hours in 12 hour time format (01-12)
h	Hours as a single digit in 12 hour time format (1-12)
mm	Minutes in two digits (01-59)
ss	Seconds in two digits (01-59)
zz	Time Zone (Indian Standard Time)
z	Time Zone in short (IST)




Please note that a combination of the above formats can also be used as per requirements. For example,

• The format D MMM YY HH:mm:ss will render - (1 Jun 21, 13:42:16 pm)
• The format EEE DD MM YYYY hh:mm z will render - (Sat, 10-07-2021, 01:06 IST)
  
4. Add/Subtract Days: Add or subtract days/months/years and this will reflect on the custom date.



You also might need an adjustment if the resulting date falls on a weekend (Sat/Sun), it should be moved to the next working day (Monday).

5. Exclude Weekdays/ Weekends: Exclude weekdays or weekends as required.

Note: The date is 21 days after excluding all weekends from the date selected (10 Jun 2021).

Note : Changes made to any one of the date fields in the document will automatically change all the fields with the same name.

Configuring Date Fields

The date fields can be configured either while creating a field or by clicking on the Configure visual cue that appears above the newly inserted date field in the document.

Click here to learn about setting up date adjustments in merge fields.

Inserting Page Numbers

To insert page numbers in your document,

1. Click where you want the page numbers to appear.
2. Click More > Fields.
3. Under the Autofields , choose the Page Number.
4. Choose to insert the page number in the header or footer from the drop-down.
5. Select Format Page Number from the drop-down menu to change the position and style of the inserted page number.
6. Click Remove Page Numbers to remove all the page numbers from the document.

Similarly, you can also add page count, author name, document name, and version of the document as autofields.