In Quick Fields 8, you can adjust the format of numbers, dates and times without adding processes or using pattern matching expressions. Instead, you will use .NET formatting. This Tech Tip will demonstrate one popular use, but you can do many more things with this feature.

For example, you can:

• Convert word dates to numbers and vice versa (e.g., April to 04).
• Add or remove leading zeroes from single-digit months or days (e.g., 4/2/2007 to 04/02/2007).
• Format numbers to have a specific number of digits before or after the decimal, with or without leading zeroes.
• Convert numbers to percentages.
• Insert thousands separators.

The language and formatting used is based on the Windows regional settings for the computer running Quick Fields. The examples here are running on a computer set to English-United States regional settings.

Example: Reformatting a date

A user wants to use Quick Fields to file purchase order documents by month. She wants the month folders to appear in calendar order, but still allow people to recognize them by the name of the month. She wants each folder name to begin with a two-digit number for the month, followed by the three-letter abbreviation for the month; for instance, 01-Jan. The dates are currently written in a different format, such as January 29, 2010, but she can capture them and then format the token so the dates will have the desired appearance.

To format the token data:

1. Place the cursor in the token, right-click and select Token Editor.
2. Select Include Formatting.
3. For more information on the available syntax, click the help link to the right of the option. For this example, we will use the syntax MM-MMM.
4. The formatted token should display in the dialog box. For example, if the original token is %(Fields.Order Date), the newly formatted token should be %(Fields.Order Date,”MM-MMM”).
5. You can expand the Test the token section and enter a sample value to make sure the formatting works as expected. For instance, July 3, 2010 should be correctly converted to 07-July.
6. When the documents are stored in Laserfiche, folders will be created according to the desired naming convention.

The Laserfiche Support Site Forums are a good place to seek more information and assistance with this feature.

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Laserfiche
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The User Education team at Laserfiche consists of the technical writers responsible for all Laserfiche software documentation, including help files, white papers, and instructional videos.

Tags: Quick Fields

Posted on Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 at 9:30 am under Support. You can comment on this post.