Automatically updating variables?

[NigelBennett]

Hi all
We include the month of publishing in the front of our documentation, e.g. "The information herein describes the application and its features as of November 2009.", and I have to remember to check and update this sentence every time I compile an output. You can't imagine how many times I have run a final check on a "finished" output and, cursing, have had to go back and update the text and recompile... So, is it possible to create a "month" variable that updates itself automatically to the current month?

[NorthEast]

Have you already seen the date variables in Flare?
If you select Insert > Variable, then select System; the date variable LongDate would give you '10 November 2009'.

There aren't variables for just month and year though, and you can't define your own.

[NigelBennett]

Hi Dave
No, I hadn't noticed that date variable, I was concentrating on just the month. However it looks good, I'll try it and see if anyone notices the additional date.
Thanks for the tip.

[NigelBennett]

Hi again
I've tried the LongDate variable. In the topic file the variable reads [LongDate: 10. November 2009], but in the compiled output it reads "...Tuesday, November 10, 2009." I can live with the date in addition to the month, and I'm not that bothered about the order they appear in, but I really don't need the day as well. Is it possible to get rid of this?

[NorthEast]

Hmm... my output just says '10 November 2009'.
Sorry, I've no idea why it's doing that for you.

[NorthEast]

Actually, for Word output (only) it includes the 'Tuesday... ' ; that's because it is inserting the date as a Word field, as opposed to plain text in the other outputs.

[wclass]

... but I really don't need the day as well. Is it possible to get rid of this?

The Short and Long date formats are taken from your Windows settings (Control Panel > Regional Settings). If you remove the day from there you might get better results, but this is Windows wide - not just for Flare.

Looks like time (again) for a Date Formatting feature request:
http://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx

Edit - meant to add ...
There is also a bug in the Word output - for short dates it ignores the Windows date and formats as "M/dd/yyyy" always (really annoying in Aus where we have dates the other way around). This is OK in PDF though. This bug has been raised with development. I understand there are also problems under Vista.

[NorthEast]

The Short and Long date formats are taken from your Windows settings (Control Panel > Regional Settings). If you remove the day from there you might get better results, but this is Windows wide - not just for Flare.

Yep, this will fix the problem; note that you need to close and re-open Flare for it to notice the change in regional settings. (Just re-building the project isn't enough.)

Saying that, for me the format does looks the same in the editor and output.

This was a bit confusing when I tested it. The long date format in English (UK) doesn't include the day (and you can't add it either, in XP); but it does include the day in English (US).