XL97: Readme.txt for Microsoft Excel 97 Date Watch Wizard

Article ID: Q192760

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

SUMMARY

This article contains the text of the Readme.txt file that is included with the Microsoft Date Watch Wizard for Microsoft Excel 97.

For more information about the Date Watch Wizard, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q176943
   TITLE     : XL97: Year 2000 Wizards for Microsoft Excel 97

MORE INFORMATION

                 ----------------------------------------
                 MICROSOFT EXCEL 97 DATE WATCH WIZARD
                               August 1998
                 ----------------------------------------
                      (c) Microsoft Corporation, 1998

The Date Watch Wizard is an add-in program for Microsoft Excel 97 that runs in the background while you work and does the following:

 * Suggests alternatives when you enter text dates that are year-ambiguous.

 * Suggests alternatives when you type certain worksheet functions and the
   text dates in the functions are year-ambiguous.

 * Changes number formats to four-year date formats when you type two-digit
   dates.

 * Displays an alert when you open text files that contain two-digit years.

Because of a change in the date algorithm in Excel 97, dates entered as text might produce different results than they did in earlier versions of Excel.

In Excel, you can enter dates more quickly by typing two digits for the year. When you type a two-digit year, Excel interprets the century that the date belongs to according to a date algorithm. Because many people enter dates that may be up to 30 years in the future, Microsoft changed the date algorithm in Excel 97 to more accurately interpret dates through the year 2029.

While text dates are acceptable in date-related functions, they are uncommon. A "text date" is either a date entered within quotation marks (" ") as an argument in a function or any text string that Excel can recognize as a date. For example, if you format a cell as text and then enter a date, the result is a text date. (If you enter a date in a blank cell with no existing number format, the result is a numeric-value date.) Excel stores most dates as numeric values, which are not impacted by issues that affect text dates. In some cases -- for example, in data imported from other sources, such as mainframe databases -- dates may be imported as text.

For more information about how Excel works with dates, see the following Excel Help topics:

     How Microsoft Excel performs date and time calculations

     Tips on entering dates and times

For more information about converting text-formatted dates to general formatted dates, see the following Excel Help topic:

     Troubleshoot formatting numbers, dates, and times

and then click:

     Numbers aren't displayed or calculated as numeric values.

 Background
 Affected functions
 Important note
 Instructions

BACKGROUND

Functions that use text dates with a two-digit year between 20 and 29 are interpreted differently in Microsoft Excel 97 than in earlier versions of Excel. The following algorithm is used to interpret these dates in Excel 95 and earlier:

   Two-digit year   Century assumed   Example   Result
   --------------   ---------------   -------   ------
   <= 19            2000              1/1/15    January 1, 2015
   > 19             1900              1/1/20    January 1, 1920

In Excel 97, the algorithm was changed to:

   Two-digit year   Century assumed   Example   Result
   --------------   ---------------   -------   ---------------
   <= 29            2000              1/1/20    January 1, 2020
   > 29             1900              1/1/30    January 1, 1930

The Date Watch Wizard runs in the background as you:

 * Type dates with two-digit years, then automatically formats these dates
   as four-digit years.

 * Type text-formatted dates with two-digit years in the affected range,
   then prompts you to format the date as a four-digit year.

 * Type worksheet functions that accept text dates as arguments, then
   alerts you if text dates in the affected range have two-digit years. You
   can then validate the accuracy of the results of these functions under
   the new algorithm in Excel 97.

 * Open text files, then alerts you if the files contain two-digit years.

AFFECTED FUNCTIONS

The following worksheet functions accept text dates in one or more of their arguments. These functions are potentially affected by date migration issues.

ACCRINT        ACCRINTM       AMORDEGRC      AMORLINC
COUPDAYBS      COUPDAYS       COUPDAYSNC     COUPNCD
COUPNUM        COUPPCD        DATEVALUE      DAY
DAYS360        DISC           DURATION       EDATE
EOMONTH        INTRATE        MDURATION      NETWORKDAYS
ODDFPRICE      ODDFYIELD      ODDLPRICE      ODDLYIELD
PRICE          PRICEDISC      PRICEMAT       RECEIVED
TBILLEQ        TBILLPRICE     TBILLYIELD     WEEKDAY
WEEKNUM        WORKDAY        XIRR           XNPV
YEAR           YEARFRAC       YIELD          YIELDDISC

YIELDMAT

The Date Watch Wizard recognizes when you type any of these functions, examines each argument, and then alerts you if the function contains a text date that has two-digit years within the range of 20 through 29. The wizard ignores any instance of four-digit years.

NOTE: The wizard does not locate or examine the following date functions: DATE, DAY, MONTH, NOW, and TODAY. These functions are unaffected by the change in the date algorithm.

IMPORTANT NOTE

The author of the worksheets or workbooks is the best person to determine whether the functions within the workbooks are calculating correctly.

INSTRUCTIONS

After you download DateWat.exe from the Microsoft Software Library and double-click it to extract DateWatch.xla (the Date Watch Wizard), you must copy the wizard to the proper folder and then load it before you can run it.

To load the wizard

1. Copy DateWatch.xla to the \Office\Library subfolder of your Microsoft

   Office folder (by default, C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office).

2. Start Excel.

3. On the Tools menu, click Add-Ins.

4. Select the Date Watch Wizard check box.

To run the wizard

1. On the Tools menu, point to Date Migration, and then click Date Watch.

2. In the Date Watch dialog box, select any or all of the following

   options:

    * As new dates are entered, change to four-digit year format

    * Alert for all date functions that will calculate differently in Excel
      97 than previous  versions

    * Display date warning when files are opened

3. Click OK to start the wizard.

NOTE: The second option also alerts you if you type in a cell a text- formatted date that contains a two-digit year.

NOTE: While the Date Fix wizard, Date Scan wizard and Date Watch Wizard are helpful for year 2000 auditing, running these tools does not guarantee year 2000 compliance. See http://www.microsoft.com/y2k for more year 2000 auditing information.

Additional query words: XL97 2019 2020 2029 2030 1919 1920 1929 1930 2000 year 2000 Date Migration Dates Y2K year2000 Additional query words: XL97 2019 2020 2029 2030 1919 1920 1929 1930 2000 year 2000 Date Migration Dates Y2K year2000

Keywords          : kbreadme
Version           : WINDOWS: 97
Platform          : WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbinfo