Formatting Date Fields

[jakecolman]

I am a little confused with how to control the default display for date and datetime fields. Under File/Options you can specify the default format to be used. You can also right-click on a specific field instance and directly set its format independant of the overall setting. But how can you undo that instance's specification and tell it to go back to using the overall default?

Better yet, we made the mistake of manually setting individial field instance formats in a misguided attempt to enforce consistency in the report. What we really want to do is to not enforce a date format at all and to allow the user to specify it via File/Options. How can I do some kind of change so that all field-specific formatting (for date and datetime fields) is removed and it honors the overall File/Options setting?

I am using Crystal XI with Oracle 9.

Thanks!

...JAke

 

[kskid]

Right click on the field and click on format field. Since it's a date, the date tab will be displayed. Click on system default short or long format and click OK

 

[synapsevampire]

I think that the only way to have it observe the formatting in report options again is to delete it and put it back in.

You've overidden the default, and I believe that the system default of long/short are the OS's defaults, not what's specified in the report options.

You can use Ctrl->Click to select all fields and then format them all at one time.

-k

 

[jakecolman]

I've already tried that and it doesn't work!

In File/Options I have specified 01-Mar-1999 as the format for DateTime fields. When I right-click on the datatime field instance in the report and select 'system default short format' it produces a format '3/1/1999 12:43'. This is obviously NOT what I am looking for.

What am I missing? What determines the value of 'system default format'?

 

[jakecolman]

synapsevampire - That's what I was afraid of. Once the formatting has been manually specified via a right-lick, there really is no way to undo that. So all I can do is delete each field and drop it back in without specifying a format?

 

[synapsevampire]

There may be another way, but I don't know of one to put it back to the default format as specified in the Report Options.

-k

 

[jakecolman]

Interestingly, this does not seem to be as simple as you might think. It appears that when a datetime field is placed on the report, it inherits the current default setting from File/Options. Any change made to File/Options subsequent to the placement of that field, does NOT change the appearance of that field. The only exception to this appears to be if you drop a datetime field into a text field. In that case, since the datetime field has no independant formatting, to will honor the File/Options setting.

I have spent alot of time determining what I have just stated. Can anyone else confirm this behavior? If so, how does one create a report that allows the end user to determine the format of dates?