This AutoComplete action has been flaky for the past few versions.
Typically, you can get the day, then the month, but if you accept
AutoComplete on the month, that's it. If you type the month and begin typing
the date, Word will suggest the entire entry, but by that time you've
already done most of the work yourself. Worse still, many users find that
after they've typed the entire date, Word will suggest an AutoComplete to
add date details in an unwanted format. So this is really not a viable
option (despite what Help says).

The alternative (other than just to type the date out in full manually) is
to select a default date format from Insert | Date and Time and use
Alt+Shift+D to insert it. It *will* be inserted as a DATE field (regardless
of the "Update automatically" setting in the dialog), so if you don't want
it to update, either press Ctrl+Shift+F9 immediately to unlink it or press
Alt+F9 and change DATE to CREATEDATE.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

"D Byler" D wrote in message
...
I am following the help menu steps to "automatically insert the current
date"
in a Word document, however the program will not automatically insert the
date. I don't want the date to change each time the document is revised.
I
just want to begin typing the date and have it automatically populate the
remainder of the date to match today's date like it is described in the
Help
feature.