Date Custom Formatting

[jaeloo]

I am making a timeline, and i need the day of the week included.  However, the only available day of the week format is very long...  Tuesday, January 13, 2010.  I would like it to display as Tue, Jan 13, 10.  I cannot find where I can customize the date formatting beyond the selections they have available.  Help??

[Paul Herber]

You need to set the date format string as "{{ddd, dd MMM yy}}"

[jaeloo]

Thank you for the quick reply, but where?  I am using Visio 2007 and in the configure milestone box there are no options to customize that I can find, only selections (none of which match my requirements).

[Paul Herber]

True, you are going to have to edit the shape slightly:
Select the timeline shape, menu Window -> Show Shapesheet
scroll down to the User-defined cells and look at cell User.visIntmMask and User.visBEMask
These are the interval and Begin/End format masks.

[jaeloo]

User defined fields option is grayed out 

[Paul Herber]

What option? It isn't an option, it's part of the display.
Have you chosen "Insert section"? That's not part of the instructions.

[wapperdude]

If you're looking at the Insert Section window, and the User-Defined Cells is grayed out, that means it's already part of the Shapesheet display.  All you need to do is scroll to that section and make the changes Paul has indicated.

HTH
Wapperdude

[mike.z]

Hello Paul,

Thanks for your explanation above - it was very helpful for my own timeline formatting needs. Thanks!

One quick related question:
- is it possible to set a default format in this manner?  So when I drag a new milestone onto the page, it inherits the custom format I want?  I was not able to figure out how to set a custom default milestone date format.

Thanks again,
Mike