Fields >> Variables >> User Field, Set variable, Show Variable, and editing a field or a variable by double click cannot handle formatting other than text or numerical, causing a very confusing experience, especially for dates and datetime. Reproduction: 1. create a new variable with "Set variable", and set format to a date format like "1999-01-01", and enter a date value, say, 2023-03-15. 2. Insert the variable, and close the dialog. 3. Double-click on the field: you will get value "42000" I see that it's "number of dates since 1899-12-30", but that probably won't help much in everyday use. It seems user fields and variables remember their formatting, but the input field ignores that when displaying. It is still possible to correctly update the field with "2022-11-22", but it's not possible to view the actual value. (As a sidenote: the manual about variables and user fields is pretty terse. It even neglects to tell the difference between variables and user fields. I see now but... possibly I shall create some diff there.)
I confirm described behaviour with Version: 7.6.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community Build ID: b5c3a7502f7ff6ccf0f829c1f3a2ba50b8584c41 CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19045; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win Locale: en-US (de_DE); UI: en-GB Calc: CL threaded but I'm afraid, this might be expected behaviour, see bug 130072. But I agree, that it is not really userfriendly. Only could find following help page: https://help.libreoffice.org/7.6/en-GB/text/swriter/01/04090005.html?System=WIN&DbPAR=WRITER&HID=modules/swriter/ui/fldvarpage/FieldVarPage#bm_@@nowidget@@ Mike, after reading (without understanding) your comment 6 in bug 84144, I'm sure, that you can answer, if current behaviour is correct or not.
The behaviour is correct, but not user-friendly.. for date+time displaying a formatted value would be better.
Eike Rathke committed a patch related to this issue. It has been pushed to "master": https://git.libreoffice.org/core/commit/185cf4496d8750c9e4905c4e384252b01b85d130 Resolves: tdf#154217 Edit date+time User Field and Set Variable It will be available in 7.6.0. The patch should be included in the daily builds available at https://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More information about daily builds can be found at: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.
VERIFIED with Version: 7.6.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community Build ID: 006b35d50024b1932d84380b5d2fec1f7066bccd CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19045; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win Locale: en-US (de_DE); UI: en-GB Calc: CL threaded Eike, thank you for fixing it!