First, let me briefly explain Format versus InputMask....
InputMask describes the format you must type to enter data. So if you put 00/00/0000 in the InputMask you would have to type 01/01/2001 to get January 1, 2001.
Format, on the other hand, merely displays the data in the format you provide. So if you put mm/dd/yyyy in the format, but the data was 1/1/01...it would be displayed as 01/01/01.
I would take a close look at the Help Files for each of these property....they explain it a lot.
That being said....
No....the users won't have to enter the zeros usless you want to make them have to.....It is totally up to how you set these two properties...
For example, I prefer to enter dates as 01/01/01...this makes them all the same length and the like and searching against them is quick and easy. But my users prefer to see the data as January 01, 2001. SO I set the InputMask as 00/00/00, and thereby making the users enter 01/01/01 to input data, and I set the Format as mmmm dd, yyyy...which display the data as January 01, 2001. Again i go back to looking at the Help fiels for all the definitions of these properties and their uses.
Good Luck! Let me know if you have any more questions..... It's not important that someone else can do in one step what it took you ten to do...the important thing is that you found a solution.
Robert L. Johnson III, A+, Network+, MCP
Access Developer/Programmer