DBF dates for mail merge

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taccy
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Sep 11, 2012 5:48 pm

DBF dates for mail merge

Post by taccy »

I wish to create some labels from a data file. When I save the file (in Planmaker) as DBF the date format changes to a number formatted as yyyymmdd,
which is not recognisable to the (elderly) users of the labels- but Planmaker does not seem to let me reformat the cells to the correct date format.
Is ther any way to do this. I have tried using CSV files -but the labels do not work well with that fomat -just showing mutliple instances of the last field.

Is there an easy way to reformat the DBF date fields? for us in making lables.

Thanks
miguel-c
SoftMaker Team
SoftMaker Team
Posts: 1233
Joined: Wed Jun 05, 2019 12:02 pm

Re: DBF dates for mail merge

Post by miguel-c »

Hi, I created a PlanMaker file with regular dd/mm/yyyy dates (see attached).
I then I saved the file as dbf and opened it in notepad and noticed that in fact they are stored as yyyymmdd there.
However when I assign the DBF in to a TextMaker document, the dates are displayed as dd/mm/yyyy.
Attachments
file.tmdx
(12.86 KiB) Downloaded 223 times
database.pmdx
(5.9 KiB) Downloaded 217 times
database.dbf
(128 Bytes) Downloaded 207 times
taccy
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Sep 11, 2012 5:48 pm

Re: DBF dates for mail merge

Post by taccy »

Thanks Miguel, your file showed me that it could be done and meant that I should explore further.
I have got it working, still not sure of the exact process, but it seems to be dependent on opening the initial file in the 'Normal.tdmx' format. On my list the top 'default' option results inusing the dbf nuerical date.
I'm not sure whether the default is something that I have produced or not. Its working and thats what matters.

Thanks again
miguel-c
SoftMaker Team
SoftMaker Team
Posts: 1233
Joined: Wed Jun 05, 2019 12:02 pm

Re: DBF dates for mail merge

Post by miguel-c »

I'm glad it worked! It may be related to your Windows regional settings when you created the original file.
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