Merging Just a Portion of a Date Instead of the Whole Date

Problem

I need to merge just the year part of a date in an answer field—not the whole date. How can I limit the answer in this way?

Solution

You can use an example format to merge just a portion of the date. The user will still enter a full date, but only a portion of it will be merged in the document.

To merge the year only

1. Create a Date variable. (See Customize a Date Variable.)
2. At the Format field (either at the Variable Field dialog box or at the Date Variable Editor), enter 1990.

Using example formats, you can merge a single Date variable in three separate answer fields. For example, say you are automating a form template and the date needs to appear on three separate blank lines. You can merge the same Date variable in all three blank spaces, but use different portions of a date format to control what gets merged in each blank space.

For example, in the following, you'd break the dates into three separate parts:

In the first blank space, you'd merge the Date variable with the format third. In the second blank, you would use June as the format. In the last blank, you'd use 1990 as the format.