# Return of the Techno-Peasant! MS-Word Question, No. Whatever **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 13, 2018, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-of-the-techno-peasant-ms-word-question-no-whatever/810469 "2018-03-13T03:36:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-of-the-techno-peasant-ms-word-question-no-whatever/810469/1 "2018-03-13T03:36:05Z")
I have yet another MS-Word question. Quite simple I would think, but extensive Googling hasn’t helped. It’s the auto-date feature. You know, you start typing “March…” and Word fills in the date: “March 13, 2018.” Except my Word doesn’t. I have to fill in the full date, with attendant wear and tear on my finger-tips, and the little grey cells, struggling to come up with the date. Except sometimes it does work. I’m typing away, and the auto-fill happens, automagically! I think there is some feature tied to my documents, because it rocks for some miffed but not others. Any help would be greatly appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-of-the-techno-peasant-ms-word-question-no-whatever/810469/2 "2018-03-13T08:14:49Z")
Does Alt-Shift-D do what you need? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-of-the-techno-peasant-ms-word-question-no-whatever/810469/3 "2018-03-13T09:55:21Z")
This is controlled by the AutoComplete option of the AutoCorrection options screen. Has that been turned off in your copy of Word? ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-of-the-techno-peasant-ms-word-question-no-whatever/810469/4 "2018-03-13T12:44:19Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I think there is some feature tied to my documents, because it rocks for some miffed but not others. My first thought was that I kind of want to move to Canada, now, just so I can hear lawyers use quaint Commonwealth legal talk like “rocks for some miffed” (no doubt it refers to a wig or something). My second thought was that dates may not be the worst of **Piper’s** autocorrect problems… ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-of-the-techno-peasant-ms-word-question-no-whatever/810469/5 "2018-03-13T15:10:52Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > This is controlled by the AutoComplete option of the AutoCorrection options screen. > Has that been turned off in your copy of Word? I don’t know. I have Word 2010. Where would I look? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-of-the-techno-peasant-ms-word-question-no-whatever/810469/6 "2018-03-13T15:12:18Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > My first thought was that I kind of want to move to Canada, now, just so I can hear lawyers use quaint Commonwealth legal talk like “rocks for some miffed” (no doubt it refers to a wig or something). > > My second thought was that dates may not be the worst of **Piper’s** autocorrect problems… I love it when a miff comes to rock in the morning! ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-of-the-techno-peasant-ms-word-question-no-whatever/810469/7 "2018-03-13T17:56:35Z")
Before investigating that, do try out Alt plus Shift plus D (it’s D as in Date to make it easy to remember). Because if that does what you need, it’s always there in every copy of Word. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-of-the-techno-peasant-ms-word-question-no-whatever/810469/8 "2018-03-13T18:58:43Z")
Tried it. Nothing happened? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-of-the-techno-peasant-ms-word-question-no-whatever/810469/9 "2018-03-13T21:04:45Z")
Wait. I was hitting control-shift-D. Alt-shift-D does insert then date, but it’s dynamic, not static. For my documents, I need the date to stay static, so months later if I pull up the e-version, it’s the original date, not the current date. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-of-the-techno-peasant-ms-word-question-no-whatever/810469/10 "2018-03-13T21:08:48Z")
I’m on my phone, but can’t you just copy and paste special as text? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-of-the-techno-peasant-ms-word-question-no-whatever/810469/11 "2018-03-13T21:16:22Z")
I found this [MS Support article](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/983262/autocomplete-tips-are-not-displayed-in-word-2007-or-in-word-2010)? Does it match your experience? If so, I’m not sure there’s a ‘real’ fix. Completely irrelevant aside: I completely misparsed the thread title as NP arguing with himself and then giving up entirely. It took me a good 5 minutes to realize that he meant No as in number, not No as in, well, no. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-of-the-techno-peasant-ms-word-question-no-whatever/810469/12 "2018-03-13T22:11:38Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I’m on my phone, but can’t you just copy and paste special as text? You mean, insert a dynamic date, select it, cut it, and then paste-special as text? It might be faster to just type the date. If you already knew the date, that is. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-of-the-techno-peasant-ms-word-question-no-whatever/810469/13 "2018-03-13T22:12:06Z")
Is this PC or Mac? Do you have any idea what you meant to say before “rocks for some miffed but not others” was inserted? I just can’t parse it. Auto-corrupt indeed. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-of-the-techno-peasant-ms-word-question-no-whatever/810469/14 "2018-03-13T22:20:01Z")
Could try this menu sequence: Insert -\> Date … and in the box that pops up, select your desired date format, **un** select “update automatically”, and click “Set as default”. Then go back to your document and see if alt-shift-d now does what you want. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2018, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-of-the-techno-peasant-ms-word-question-no-whatever/810469/15 "2018-03-14T00:25:22Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > You mean, insert a dynamic date, select it, cut it, and then paste-special as text? It might be faster to just type the date. If you already knew the date, that is. 🙂 Yep. That’s what I meant. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2018, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-of-the-techno-peasant-ms-word-question-no-whatever/810469/16 "2018-03-14T00:48:39Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Completely irrelevant aside: I completely misparsed the thread title as NP arguing with himself and then giving up entirely. It took me a good 5 minutes to realize that he meant No as in number, not No as in, well, no. I had the same problem, except I never figured it out - I had to wait for you to explain it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2018, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-of-the-techno-peasant-ms-word-question-no-whatever/810469/17 "2018-04-06T04:49:20Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I found this [MS Support article](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/983262/autocomplete-tips-are-not-displayed-in-word-2007-or-in-word-2010)? Does it match your experience? If so, I’m not sure there’s a ‘real’ fix. That fixed it! I just changed the zoom level down to 85% and the auto-dates came back! Thanks. > [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Completely irrelevant aside: I completely misparsed the thread title as NP arguing with himself and then giving up entirely. It took me a good 5 minutes to realize that he meant No as in number, not No as in, well, no. Did you not get the bit about the techno-peasant? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2018, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/return-of-the-techno-peasant-ms-word-question-no-whatever/810469/18 "2018-04-06T13:28:37Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > Is this PC or Mac? > > Do you have any idea what you meant to say before “rocks for some miffed but not others” was inserted? I just can’t parse it. Auto-corrupt indeed. I think it was “works for some docs but not others” - that’s why I didn’t think it was a problem with the auto-format setting being turned off.