Reliable Power Meters
Using Custom Dates
in Report Writer

When the report writer initialises and the date is not one where the day and month are both in the range 1..12, then it will not allow you to modify the date the report spans.

RPM Report Writer Date Entry

The actual fault is Report Writer is only programmed to work with USA date format (mm/dd/yy) and not International Date Format (dd/mm/yy). This means the entire of Europe (actually, pretty much the rest of the world) cannot use the date entry properly (When I brought this to RPM's attention I received the reply "Ouch" - Yip, it hurt!). Unfortunately, although they do recognize it as a bug, they are no longer doing development on PAS so it's probably not going to get fixed (however, there is always hope...).

regional and language optionsThe cure is simple (but, alas, rather annoying!). When doing reports, it is advised to close down all programs (i.e. get to a blank desktop). Then, access the Control Panel (Start -> Settings -> Control Panel) and 'double-click' on the "Regional And Language Options" icon (as shown alongside). Locate and change only the 'short date' format to "mm/dd/yy".

entering short date

Invoke PAS, load the database you need the report on, and continue as desired.

One small note: Do remember to change the date format back again when you have finished. It could otherwise cause mass confusion!

In Closing: On the bright side, Scenario, release 1.4.7.3 onwards, will have Report Writer that will enable you to generate a report over all the intervals in a location, combining information, and using custom graphs over the intervals. Very cool! Effort will be put in to see if they can have Scenario's Report Writer work with the International Date Format.


If there are any questions please ask.

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©  M.T.P. - 31.05.03