Use a pop-up calendar to select and insert a date

There are several web sources to be found that demonstrate the insertion of a date using a pop-up calendar. All those I have read are rather heavy going for the Word user who may wish to simply add a a calendar, from which he/she can select a date and insert it into a document or form field. This page does not offer any new or innovative techniques, but hopefully I have been able to explain in simple terms with illustrations, how to prepare such a calendar for use.

In the following example the illustrations are from Word 2007, but the function will work equally well with earlier versions and the relevant dialog boxes virtually identical.

The calendar is a Word userform run from the macro below. If you are unfamiliar with using macro code examples, then first see my Idiots Guide to Installing Macros.

Sub InsCalendar()
     frmCalendar.Show
End Sub

Open the vba editor (ALT+F11) and from the main menu select Insert > Userform

Right click the control toolbox and select 'Additional controls'

Locate the Calendar Control (the one shown below is the Office 2003 - Office 11.0 -version which may also be used with Word 2007). If not present, mscal.ocx is not installed - see the note at the start of this section

This adds the calendar control to the controls toolbox palette.

Change the name of the userform from UserForm1 to a meaningful name. I have used frmCalendar  which you will see reflected in the macro that calls the calendar at the head of this page.

Then drag the calendar control from the toolbox to the Userform and drag the handles that surround the calendar tool to produce a calendar of the required size. Then drag the handles of the userform itself to remove the surrounding space to produce a calendar similar to that shown below.

The layout of the calendar is user configurable e.g. click the calendar to select it then right click and choose 'properties'. You can play around with the various settings in the customisation dialog to give the effect you desire.

Double click the 'hidden' button and the associated code dialog will open

Add the code associated with that button thus:

Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
Unload Me
End Sub

You could have first renamed the command button to give it a more meaningful name, but we only have one button on this form and the default will do the job.

All that remains is to add the code to insert the selected date into the document. In the following example, the code inserts the date at the cursor, This is the type of code you would use if the calling macro (at the top of this page)  was run from a toolbar button or keyboard shortcut with the current date shown selected.

Private Sub Calendar1_Click()
With Selection

    .Text = Format(Calendar1.Value, "dd mmmm yyyy")
    .MoveRight Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1

End With
Unload Me
End Sub

Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
Calendar1.Value = Date
End Sub

The next example is the type of code you might employ in a protected form. Here the calling macro is run on entry to a form field with the default name Text2. This calendar has an initial display with 30 days added to the current date and inserts the selected date into the form field.