Mac Forum / Applications / Word / March 2006

Anyone know if a fix for this bug submitted to Mac OS X Hints is available yet
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2006012614242923&lsrc=osxh

"I've run into an annoying bug a few times since I upgraded to Microsoft
Word 2004 SP2. The bug shows itself in Word forms that have a two-character
number or text field. When you attempt to fill the field with your number or
text (such as the middle two digits in a social security number field), Word
responds with an error that says "A valid date or time is required." What's
really annoying about it is that Word refuses to let you change the field at
all if the document was locked with a password.

The workaround is simple: type your information in the field, and then save
the document. You'll still get the error (twice, actually), but once you
close the document and then re-open it, the number you typed will be there.
Don't re-click in that field again, or you may have to repeat the save-reopen
process.

If you'd like to prove this for yourself, here's a test case:
Open a new Word document.
In the Fields Toolbar, click on Text Form Field
Double-click on the field just created to open the Text Form Field Options.
Change the type to "number" and the maximum length to "2". Change the number
format to "0".
Click okay.
Create another Text Form Field, and change the properties to a normal text
field.
Click the lock icon on the Fields Toolbar.
Attempt to fill in the 2-digit field you've created. You should get the
error.   "