Date formatter

Use the Date formatter to standardize date formats, so that TotalAgility converts all dates into the same format, regardless of input format.

  1. Navigate to Capture > Field formatters.

    The Field formatters page appears. The two formatters, Default Amount Formatter and Default Date Formatter appear by default.

  2. Click New.

    The New field formatter dialog box is displayed.

  3. By default, a new formatter is added to your working category. To select a different category for the new formatter, select the Category.
  4. On the Type list, select Date.
  5. Configure the date formatter settings.

    Setting Description

    Date detection

    Type

    Available date options if more than one date interpretation is possible:

    • First valid date in list (Default)

    • Nearest valid date from today

    • Nearest valid date in past

    • Nearest valid date in future

    Year range

    The minimum and maximum year allowed on a document. (Default: Minimum: 1900, Maximum: 2100)

    Treat two digit dates greater than

    Converts a two-digit year into a four-digit year. (Default: 40; this means, all values from 00 to 40 are converted to 20XX, and 41 to 99 to 19XX.)

    Allow empty field

    If selected, allows an empty field to be valid; otherwise, the empty fields are considered invalid. (Default: Clear)

    Month dictionary

    Allows you to enter month names and numbers so that recognized month names are replaced with their corresponding numbers during formatting. For the best results, include full month names as well as common abbreviations with three or more characters.

    If you already have a list of month names and abbreviations that follow the required format, copy and paste them rather than typing them again. If you process documents in multiple languages, include month names and abbreviations in those languages.

    For full names, OCR fault tolerance is able to recognize up to two OCR errors. As a result, Jonuory is successfully recognized as January. For three-letter abbreviations, a single OCR error only is allowed.

    The required format is MonthName;MonthNumber with a single entry per line. Any entries that do not match this format are ignored. Entries are not case sensitive.

    For example, there is a Month Dictionary entry for January;01. During extraction, 26 January 2017 is extracted and then formatted to 26 01 2017.

    For best results, place the most likely formats at the top of the list.

    Ambiguous date formats

    Allows you to select the date formats that are found on the document. For example, move (MM/DD/YYYY) (American date format) or (DD/MM/YYYY) (European date format) from the Available list to the Selected list.

    You can control the sequence of formats how they are evaluated by moving them up or down in the selected list.

    Date output format

    Format

    A list of date formats. (Default: DD/MM/YYYY (European date format))

    Two digit year date output format is also available for use. It can be used with any or no delimiter.

    Date delimiter

    The characters to separate the components of a date. (Default ".")

    Sample

    A read-only field that displays the sample date in the specified format.

  6. To test the date formatter, enter a sample text in the Sample input text box and click Test.

    The output appears in the Formatted text field. For example, if Format = DD/MM/YYYY and Date Delimiter = “_”, and Sample Input text = 11/06/2015, the Formatted Text appears as 11-06-2015.

    If TotalAgility cannot format the sample text, for example, if the sample input text is incorrect, a message appears.

  7. Click Save.