When you enter a date into a date field, Family Historian will try to determine what date you mean. If it cannot do so, it will warn you that the date is invalid and ask you to correct the date information. It is important that Family Historian can determine which date you mean. It can use this information for a variety of purposes, such as filtering and sorting on dates, warning of improbable or inconsistent dates, offering alternative display formatting options, and calculating age information.
If you are not sure how to specify a particular date, you can always use the Date Entry Assistant Dialog to help you enter the date. You can open this dialog by clicking on the button with 3 little dots at the right end of the date field, or by double-clicking on the date field itself. However, when entering simple dates you should not need to use this dialog box.
As well as warning of unrecognised dates, you will also be warned if you try to enter an invalid date into a date field - for example, if you specify the 31st day of a month that only has 30 days. If you really wish to store an invalid date like this you can do so. When the "Invalid Date" dialog appears, leave the date unchanged and press to close it. You will be warned again that the date is invalid. Press to confirm that you wish to keep it anyway.
Occasionally, you may wish to enter a date into a date field, as a simple textual phrase, which Family Historian cannot be expected to interpret. In that case, simply put the date into quotes (e.g. "3 weeks after his wife died"). Family Historian will not try to interpret any date in quotes.
Where dates are entered with the month specified as a digit (e.g. 3/12/1918), the interpretation of this will depend on your preferred 'short date format', as specified in the Windows Control Panel. In the UK, this would normally be 'dd/mm/yyyy' (i.e. as 3 Dec 1918); but in the U.S. (except in the U.S. customs) this would normally be 'mm/dd/yyyy' (i.e. as 12 Mar 1918).
If Family Historian can determine what date you mean, it will display the date in different formats depending on the context and on options you choose. See Date Formats for more details.
Family Historian tries to be as flexible as possible in allowing you to enter dates in a wide variety of styles. The table below gives just some examples of how you might enter simple dates.
All of the dates in the left column are acceptable to Family Historian. The right column shows how it will interpret them. As you will see, for each possible date there are numerous ways of entering the same information. Where the interpretation will vary, depending on your preferred 'short date format', both interpretations are given.
| Text Entered into Date Field | Interpretation |
|---|---|
| 1910 | 1910 |
| Dec 1910 | Dec 1910 |
| December 1910 | Dec 1910 |
| d 1910 | Dec 1910 |
| 12/1910 | Dec 1910 |
| 12.1910 | Dec 1910 |
| 12\1910 | Dec 1910 |
| 12 1910 | Dec 1910 |
| 3 Dec 1910 | 3 Dec 1910 |
| 3dec1910 | 3 Dec 1910 |
| 3 December 1910 | 3 Dec 1910 |
| 3rd Dec 1910 | 3 Dec 1910 |
| Dec3 1910 | 3 Dec 1910 |
| Dec 3 1910 | 3 Dec 1910 |
| Dec 3rd 1910 | 3 Dec 1910 |
| Dec3rd1910 | 3 Dec 1910 |
| 3/12/1910 |
3 Dec 1910 (if 'dd/mm/yyyy') or 12 Mar 1910 (if 'mm/dd/yyyy') |
| 3.12.1910 | 3 Dec 1910 (if 'dd/mm/yyyy') or 12 Mar 1910 (if 'mm/dd/yyyy') |
| 3\12\1910 | 3 Dec 1910 (if 'dd/mm/yyyy') or 12 Mar 1910 (if 'mm/dd/yyyy') |
| 3 12 1910 | 3 Dec 1910 (if 'dd/mm/yyyy') or 12 Mar 1910 (if 'mm/dd/yyyy') |
If you want to enter complex date information - such as a date range, period, quarter, etc - you will usually find it more convenient to use the Date Entry Assistant Dialog to help you enter the date (see above, first paragraph on this page, for instructions on how to open it). If you frequently enter complex dates, however, you may prefer to use some of these shortcut techniques: