--- In IBObjects@y..., guido.klapperich@t... wrote:

> > Could you please tell me why a pain? Maybe do you have to enter more numbers? I dubt. You are from Italy
>
> No I'm from germany, I have only a italian name.
>

Ops... :) But the date format is the same, I suppose (dd/mm/yy)

[cut]

> But when the field is empty, it sets the date to 03.05.2002 and when I enter 5.5.99 the result will be 53.55.9902.

Oh, yes, it's a bug I've fixed but Jason has some difficoult to provide a D3-D6 solution, since my code is for D5-D6. Anyway, if you define an input mask with 2 years digit it's fine.
You can also add the following code to fix it (or, replace the procedure with this):

procedure TIB_CustomDate.KeyPress(var Key: Char);
var
strTmp, T: string;
begin
// special keys for simplified date entry
if (not Assigned( Field )) or (Assigned( Field ) and (DataLink.Modify)) then // check if update possible
begin
if (Key = char(VK_SPACE)) or
(((Text = FormatMaskText( EditMask, '' )) or (EditText = SelText)) and (Key in [ '0'..'9' ])) then
begin
strTmp := AnsiLowerCase(ShortDateFormat);
if (length(strTmp)>=4) and (copy(strTmp, length(strTmp)-3, 4)='yyyy') then // try to convert to a 2 digit year
begin
replace_string( strTmp, 'yyyy', 'yy' );
DateTimeToString( T, strTmp, Date );
strTmp := PadInputLiterals(EditMask, T, ' ');
if (length(strTmp)>4) and (copy(strTmp, length(strTmp)-3, 2)= ' ') then // like: xx/xx/__yy
Text := T + ' '
else
Text := T;
end
else
Text := DateToStr( Date );

// assigning text makes unnecessary to explicitly reflect changes
// i.e. Modified:=True; DataLink.ControlIsModified:=True; if Key = char(VK_SPACE) then SysUpdateData( Field );

if Key = char(VK_SPACE) then
Key := #0;
end;
end;
if not Assigned( Field ) then
begin
if not (Key in [ #0..#32, '0'..'9', DateSeparator ]) then
begin
MessageBeep(0);
Key := #0;
end;
end;
inherited KeyPress(Key);
end;

>
> But more important to me is the problme with NormalCellColor. Do have an idea, what I have to do to get it work ?
>
>

It does not work (bug), because, strange, assigning Brush.Style := bsClear also reverts the Brush.Color to white. But NormalCellColor I think is not a great looking property, it should be replaced, I think, with BackgroundCalendarColor (that seems not implemented yet, but it's late night here ;)).
Just to test how it could work if fixed, try this:
In DatePick.Pas, (internal) procedure PaintCells, around line 1927, you find code like this:

InflateRect(rCell, -FIncCellWidth, -FIncCellHeight);
Brush.Style := bsClear;
Brush.Color := NormalCellColor; // ************************
DrawText(Handle, PChar(sDate), Length(sDate), rCell,
DT_SINGLELINE or DT_RIGHT or DT_VCENTER);


the line with // ********** it's what you have to add to experiment.
Let me know
Marco Menardi