# Adobe InDesign Auto Date Insert



## corey18_70 (Jun 13, 2002)

Hi there.

Is it possible to use a special character to automatically generate dates on Master Pages in InDesign 2.0? I'm looking for a function similar to the one you can use in Header and Footer elements in <ack!> MS Word.

Thanks.


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## cabbage (Jun 23, 2002)

You need to write an Applescript that will get the System Time and insert it into InDesign


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## owaters (Jun 23, 2002)

Are you wanting this time to be the current time? So when users go on your page it shows the current time or the time that you created the page?

If you want to show the current time then I suggest you try using SSI (Server Side Includes). Search on google for something like "SSI Time".

Good Luck


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## corey18_70 (Jun 23, 2002)

I'm not looking to insert the time, but the date. For example, on a letterhead, instead of manually entering the date this piece of code would automatically insert the current date in the correct formatting.

Quark allows you to auto-enter page numbers with the symbol <#> on master pages. I'm curious if InDesign has a correllating special character for dates.


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## owaters (Jun 24, 2002)

Hmmm, no I dont think it does.
Still, if your host offers SSI support then use this bit of code:

Note: This is not PHP!
	
	



```
<!--#config timefmt="%A, %d %B %Y" -->
<!--#echo var="DATE_LOCAL" -->
```
You will have to save your documents as .shtml

This will not show up when you preview the page on your system, but it will once you have uploaded  

Hope this helps.


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## evildan (Jun 24, 2002)

owaters, I don't think corey18_70 is looking to host this on the web at all. InDesign is a page layout program.

And sorry corey18_70, I cannot answer your question. Let me ask you a question, are you planning on inserting the just on the master page?

If so, then pardon my ignorance, but why can't you manually insert it on the master page? It will be reflected on every other page. When the date changes, you will only have to change one string of text on the master page to have it reflect on the other pages in your document.


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