Microsoft Year 2000 Readiness Disclosure & Resource Center

Product Summary

Product: Word 95 Version: 7.0 Category: Compliant* Operating System: 32-Bit Win Language: Japanese Release Date: N/A Operational Range: 01 Jan 1901 - 31 Dec 2035 Prerequisites: Office 95 Year 2000 Software Update Product Dependencies: Windows 95 or Windows NT 3.51 Clock Dependencies: System clock Last Updated: 23 Aug 1999

Product Details

Product Maintenance: While Microsoft continues to recommend that customers install the most current Service Pack/Release for non-Year 2000 reasons, we understand that, for many reasons, this may not be possible. In order to aid our customersÆ Year 2000 efforts, Microsoft intends to maintain Office 95 as compliant through January 1, 2001. Newer Service Packs are also to be maintained as compliant, and may include additional non-Year 2000 updates. This is intended to minimize the Year 2000 as a reason to upgrade. An Office 95 Year 2000 update is now available. For more detailed information and to download this update please go to http://www.microsoft.com/japan/Office/OfficeFreeStuff/Office/O95y2k/. How the product handles dates: Storage. Date and time values for all date usage in Microsoft Word are stored either as simple text strings or as a 32-bit integer. This convention means that the date is represented by a 4-digit year, thus minimizing the risk of date errors. If the date information is stored in a 32-bit integer, the data is represented by bit fields that have the following ranges: Hours: 0-23 Minutes: 0-59 Seconds: 0-59 Weekday: 0(Sun)-6(Sat) Day of Mo.: 1-31 Year: 1900-2411 Unless otherwise noted, all features within Microsoft Word that manipulate dates store the dates as a 32-bit integer. What this means is dates saved with versions of documents retain their 4-digit year designations, regardless of display. Similarly, all revision marking date information retains the 4-digit year designations. String date parsing. Other date values, such as might be imported from another program or entered with an Insert Date/Time command, are simple text. Therefore, they are not handled as date values. The one exception is with the Table/Sort command. In this instance, text strings can be interpreted as date values. The two-digit year Æ00 is interpreted as the year 2000, all other two digit years are interpreted as being in the 20th century. If the user wants to sort dates in the 21st century, they should use the full four digits. There is no validation of the dates in Table/Sort, so, for instance, a date of 2/30/2000 would be sorted before 3/1/2000. Table/Sort interprets the range of years 1900 through 2035. The same 1901-2000 window is used for interpretation of two digit dates when using Date formatting (picture switch) of Quote Fields. Table/Sort does not interpret Double Byte dates strings as date values. They are interpreted as plain text. Single byte dates are interpreted as described above. Table/Sort does not interpret single byte "00" year strings as date values when entered in YMD date order. This will be corrected with the Year 2000 patch that will be accessible from this site shortly. Saving to an earlier version of Microsoft Word, or upgrading, will have no affect on dates within a document. All date field information and file properties will be retained and correctly recognized.   Two-digit shortcut handling: Conversion of 2-digit shortcut dates (primarily in table sort and in Word fields) assumes a date window of 1901 through 2000. In the Japanese version, Emperor dates are designated with digits 1-xxx. Dates will be sorted through this range and are not concerned with year 2000. What are the issues? All two digit shortcuts for dates are assumed to be in the 20th century with the exception of 00, which is interpreted as the year 2000. This functionality is exposed only in the Word Basic macro language, quote fields, date formatted text form fields and in table sort. It is not exposed by the more typical uses of dates, including Insert Date, Insert Field (Date and Time), or file attributes. Recommendations: Because of the way that 2-digit shortcuts are handled in Microsoft Word 95, users should enter 4-digit years for their dates. Common date usage errors: In general, the entry, importing or formatting of years as 2 digits should be discouraged or eliminated where date calculation dependencies in the user solutions exist. Since most document content, including data entered through Insert Date/Time and Text Form Fields, is stored as plain text, the century information could be improperly derived or assumed by the user solution. Use of Microsoft Word date field types and pre-defined document and file properties for document-related date calculations will ensure that the available information represents a true date. Because Microsoft Word date fields do not support date arithmetic, we have, in earlier, suggested the use of nested formula fields (expressions) to accomplish adding or subtracting days, months, or years to dates. Because simple arithmetic calculations are not calendar-aware, this method is prone to Year 2000-type errors, particularly with 2-digit year values, and is no longer recommended. Testing guidelines and recommendations: In general, avoid testing in a production environment because we cannot predict side effects with other products. Interoperability testing with other Microsoft Office products can be conducted safely. The following areas should be looked at to verify dates are being properly used. The table below can be used to guide testing of Microsoft Word within your organization. Area SubArea Testing Notes Edit Insert Date/Time Table Sort   Insert Date and Time can insert the current date as text formatted as a date, or as a date field that can be updated. Table Sort can interpret text strings as a date, and sort in chronological order, ascending or descending. Two digits can be interpreted as years. Æ00 is interpreted as the year 2000, all other two digit years are interpreted as being in the 20th century. Table Sort recognizes the years 1900 through 2035. File File Native RTF Text Conversions Graphics Filters Document Properties Revision Marking   Date information is stored in the document for creation date, revision date, and the date the document was last printed. Dates are written to RTF in a four digit format. Date information is stored with text that is marked for revisions. Fields Date/Time Fields Formula Fields Summary Information Fields Text Form Fields   Field Picture Switches Many fields exist that manipulate date and time information. CreateDate, Date, DocProperty whose properties include CreateTime, LastPrinted, LastSavedTime, and Total Editing Time, EditTime, Info whose types include CreateDate, EditTime, PrintDate, and SaveDate, PrintDate, SaveDate, and Time. In German, the fields DocProperty: Total Editing Time, EditTime, and Info: EditTime are not available. Quote fields and Text Form fields are text fields that can be formatted as dates using field picture switches. Formula fields are designed to calculate text or numbers. Macros WordBasic The WordBasic commands that manipulate date and time information are: AppInfo$(21-26) Date$() DateSerial() DateValue() Day() Days360() DocumentStatistics .Created, .LastSaved, .Printed, .Time GetDocumentProperty$ CreateTime, LastSavedTime, LastPrinted Hour() InsertDateField InsertDateTime InsertTimeField Minute() Month() Now() OnTime Second() Time$() TimeSerial() TimeValue() Today() ToolsRevisionDate() ToolsRevisionDate$() Weekday() Year() Mail Doc Routing Posting Mail Merge SendMail WordMail Mail messages can be sent from within Word. Date and Time functionality that is available with Word is also available within WordMail. Misc. Boot/Quit DDE Environment OLE   Print Document Property The last date that the document was printed is saved with the document. Templates Templates In Japanese, templates containing date text form fields are formatted with a four digit year date format. View Header/Footer Footnotes/Endnotes Comments Status Bar     The CreateDate, Date, and PrintDate fields can be inserted into a documentÆs header or footer via the Header and Footer toolbar. These fields are identical to the fields inserted via the Field dialog. The current date is displayed on the word status bar on NT 3.51. Wizards Calendar Wizard Fax Wizard Letter Wizard Table Wizard A range of dates can be selected to use with the Calendar Wizard. The Calendar Wizard will create a calendar for the first year specified in the range of dates. The Fax Wizard outputs two digit years. The Letter Wizard outputs two or four digit years. The Table Wizard can be used with a range of years, which are specified in 4-digit format.

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ANY MICROSOFT YEAR 2000 STATEMENTS MADE TO YOU IN THE COURSE OF PROVIDING YEAR 2000 RELATED UPDATES, YEAR 2000 DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS, OR REMEDIATION SERVICES (IF ANY) ARE SUBJECT TO THE YEAR 2000 INFORMATION AND READINESS DISCLOSURE ACT (112 STAT. 2386). IN CASE OF A DISPUTE, THIS ACT MAY REDUCE YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS REGARDING THE USE OF ANY SUCH STATEMENTS, UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED BY YOUR CONTRACT OR TARIFF.

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