How to insert date and time in Word

While working with documents in an office program, it is often necessary to display the current date and time in Word. Inserting them manually is not very convenient, because later it may be necessary to change these parameters.

How to write time in Word? The Microsoft Office Word text editor provides tools to insert current values ​​into a document or automatically update previously inserted dates and times to the current values.

You can paste the date and time in Word as plain text. If this method is used to add the date and time to Word, then, if necessary, the user has to manually make all the necessary corrections to the document.

When working with a Microsoft Word document, it is recommended to use the insert date and time fields. In this case, the value will be automatically updated after each opening of the document.

The instructions in this article use the Word 2019 text editor to insert time and date in Word. In versions of Word 2016, Word 2013, Word 2010, Word 2007, a similar algorithm of actions is performed.

How to insert the current date and time in Word

First, let’s take a look at the steps of inserting the date and time in Word.

Go through the steps:

1. Open a Word document.
2. Click on a location in the document that is appropriate for setting the date and time values.
3. Enter the “Insert” tab.
4. In the “Text” group, click on the “Date and Time” button.
5. A new window will open in which you need to select the appropriate options for displaying the date or time format.

The “Formats” field presents various types of records suitable for the Russian language: several date formats, date and time, time only. Various date options are available using day, month, year, day of the week, and time in hours, minutes, and seconds. The most commonly used format is “DD.MM.YY” (date, month, year).

In the “Language” field, the language of the text editor interface is selected by default. In our case, Russian.

To update the time values ​​each time the document is opened, check the box next to “Update automatically”. The program will independently update the date corresponding to the current value, focusing on the calendar of the Windows operating system on the computer.

If there is no checkbox in the “Update automatically” field, then the entered values ​​in the document will not change, because they are inserted in plain text, and not in a special field.

6. To save the changes, click on the “OK” button.
7. The Word document window displays the current times in the selected format.

How to insert the default date and time in Word

It is often necessary to insert the same date and time values ​​in the same format in all Word documents used on a given computer. In this case, you need to set this format as the default.

Do the following:

1. In an open document, go to the “Insert” tab.
2. Click the mouse pointer in the document where you want to display the current time values.
3. Click on the “Date and Time” button, which is located in the “Text” group.
4. In the Date and Time window, set the appropriate time and date settings.
5. Click on the “Default” button.
6. In the warning window, click the “Yes” button.
7. To confirm the choice of parameters, in the “Date and time” window, click on the “OK” button.

Insert date and time to create, save and print a document

Now let’s look at inserting fields with date formats using the Quick Blocks feature.

Go through the following steps:

1. In an open MS Word document, go to the “Insert” tab.
2. In the Text group, click on the Quick Blocks button.
3. In the drop-down menu, click on the “Field …” item.
4. In the “Field” window, in the “Select a field” section, in the “Categories:” select “Date and time”.
5. In the “Fields:” field, you need to specify one of the options: “CreateData” (creation date), “PrintDate” (print date), “SaveData” (save date).
6. In the “Field properties” section, in the “Date formats:” field, set the appropriate value.
7. Click on the “OK” button.

Insert date or time using hotkeys

Word has a way to insert a date or time using keyboard shortcuts without using the Application Options interface.

Do the following:

1. Click in the document where you want to insert the date or time.
2. Click on keyboard shortcuts:

• “Alt” + “Shift” + “T” – Paste the time in the default format.
• “Alt” + “Shift” + “D” – insert the date in the default format.

When using this method, the inserted time values ​​will be updated automatically each time the document is opened.

Change date field values

When using automatic updating of the date value, the user may need to make changes. To set a new date, do the following:

1. In an open document, move the mouse pointer over the date, the date field will turn gray.
2. Click on the date with the mouse cursor, a rectangle will appear around the date field.
3. Above this field, the “Update” context menu command will open.
4. Enter a new date, and then click outside the rectangle.

The new date appears in this Word document.

Remove date and time from Word document

If you no longer need to display date and time values, you can remove them from the document. It’s very easy to do this:

1. Select a field or text with a date in a Word document.
2. Then press the “Del” (Delete) key.
3. Save your changes before closing the Word document.

Article Conclusions

While working in the Microsoft Word text editor, the user may need to add a date and time to a document. You can do this in plain text, which will no longer be updated until it is changed manually, or use a special field to insert the value. In this case, you can set this setting to update automatically each time you open a Word document.