Calculated Value of "Start Time" in a calendar is not working

Question

I am having a problem with a content type-specific, Reusable workflow. I use it for a calendar. When ever an event is created, I send an email to the approver with Name of the event, start time and end time. End Time works fine but start time displays "Monday, January 01, 0001" in workflow email.

A workaround is suggested here: http://blog.incworx.com/blog/sharepoint-administrators-blog/start-time-returns-110001-work-around

So I added single text column called "Calculated Start Time" to the content type. And I assigned a calculated value for it's text,

 =TEXT([Start Time],"mm/dd/yyyy, h:mm:ss AM/PM")

Now I added the column to the workflow email [%Current Item:Calculated Start Time%]. But it shows nothing. Not even the wrong date "Monday, January 01, 0001"

This problem seems to persistent to many people! How can I solve this problem?

Answer 1

I finally found the answer.

It turns out, workflow not recognizing "Start Time" is a common problem! All we need is a workaround.

For reusable, content type-specific workflow, we can solve this problem by the following.

1. Create a new column in the content type (Event or your own new content type) of type "Calculated from other columns" (I was using single line text which was a mistake) .
2. Select "Calculated" in the default value.
3. Add the following code in the text box =TEXT([Start Time],"mm/dd/yyyy, h:mm:ss AM/PM")

Now it gets the start time perfectly. Simple workaround.

You can also refer: http://blog.incworx.com/blog/sharepoint-administrators-blog/start-time-returns-110001-work-around