Microsoft Year 2000 Readiness Disclosure & Resource Center

Product Summary

Product: Outlook Version: 97 Category: Compliant* Operating System: 32-Bit Win Language: Arabic Release Date: 01 Apr 1997 Operational Range: 01 Apr 1601 - 31 Aug 4500 Prerequisites: Outllib.dll version 8.01QFE-E is required for Year 2000 compliance. Product Dependencies: Arabic Windows 95 or later, Arabic Windows NT4 or later (no specific SP is required, (although Service Pack 2 is recommended). Clock Dependencies: System clock Last Updated: 20 Sep 1999

Product Details

Prerequisite: Outllib.dll version 8.01QFE-E is required for Year 2000 compliance. This update can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/middleeast/support/download.stm How the product handles dates: Storage. Dates in Outlook are stored and manipulated as full dates. Dates are integral to the productÆs operation. The system clock is used for current date and time data. Formatting. Dates are displayed in 2-digit and 4-digit formats, using the short and long date formats specified in Regional Settings in the Windows Control Panel. Date entry fields parse and accept inputs that follow the formats specified in Regional Settings. Parsing on date entry. Outlook 97 uses a 2-digit date window that spans a period 30 years prior to and 70 years after a reference date. Each date field reference date is either the current date or a related date field. The date range for printing an Outlook calendar is limited to 30 years prior to and 70 years after the current date. The Outlook 97 QFE update is required to properly handle short dates when scheduling events that span the century boundary. Two-digit shortcut handling: For 2-digit year entries, Outlook uses a window that includes a period 30 years prior to and 70 years after a reference date. If a date is entered that does not match the systems short date format, a standard algorithm is used to attempt to interpret what the user meant. An error is generated only if no valid date can be determined. Certain features in Outlook are designed to use different parsing algorithms that better fit their particular context. The Birthday and Anniversary fields use a window that includes a period 95 years prior to and 5 years after the current date, while the Inbox Assistant and Out of Office Assistant's Advanced rule settings use the range of 1980-2079. Importing 2-digit-year information from text files into Outlook may result in some years being interpreted incorrectly. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q197237.   Common date usage errors: Outlook originally parsed dates that are entered with 2 digit-year formats in an unexpected way. When, for example, 12/25/99 was entered in a date field, the date was parsed and stored as 12/25/2099 instead of 12/25/1999. This behavior has been resolved with the installation of the Outlook 97QFE update, which can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/middleeast/support/download.stm. Without the Outlook 97 QFE update, there are two areas in which this parsing behavior commonly manifests itself: One area is in the user interface where date entries are parsed. For example, in the calendar module, if the user clicks Go to Date on the Go To menu and then types 12/25/99, Outlook takes the user to December 25, 2099. Another area is in custom forms that make calculations based on dates. When a date is entered and displayed using only 2-digit years, there is no visual clue that the date has been parsed to the correct century. For example, suppose there is a form that allows a user to enter a purchase date and then uses script to calculate a warranty date that is one year in the future. If this form shows only 2 digits for the year entered and the user enters 12/1/99 as the purchase date, the warranty date is calculated as 12/1/2100 because the purchase date was parsed as 12/1/2099. Because the form shows only 2-digit years for dates, both dates appear to be correct and display as 12/1/99 and 12/1/00. Internally, however, the dates are stored and evaluated as 12/1/2099 and 12/1/2100. The updated Outllib.dll version 8.01QFE-E that is available in the Outlook 97QFE update changes the parsing behavior to the expected results. For end-to-end compliance when using Outlook 97 as an e-mail client, a Year 2000 compliant mail server is also needed, including Exchange Server 4.0 Service Pack 5 or Exchange Server 5.0 Service Pack 2 or later. Note that other parts of e-mail connectivity need to be Year 2000 compliant as well for full compliance--for example client transports, server connectors, gateways, and so forth. Microsoft Outlook Support for Lotus cc:Mail from the Outlook 97 ValuPack is Year 2000 compliant only with the update obtained from http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/downloadDetails/ccmailsp.htm which resolves the issue of 2-digit shortcuts being assumed to be 19xx dates. Testing guidelines and recommendations: In general, avoid testing in a production environment because side effects with other noncompliant products cannot be predicted. Interoperability testing with other Microsoft Office products and with Exchange Server can be conducted safely. The system clock should be advanced to future dates to properly test features--such as appointments and tasks--that use the current date as reference dates. Note that reminders for future appointments might be set off during this testing and will not renotify when the date is set back. Additionally, users should enter dates using 4-digit-year information instead of using a truncated 2-digit year format. Developers should use these specific year formats on form controls to help ensure that the correct date is entered and recorded. If using Outlook to send or view Microsoft Exchange Forms Designer custom forms, note that the Microsoft Exchange Forms Designer is a Visual Basic 4.0 16-bit application. It will default 2-digit dates to the century of the current system date. The Short and Long date fields on custom Exchange Forms Designer forms are stored as string values. These custom date fields will not sort or filter correctly. For information about Visual Basic 4.0 compliance issues, see the Visual Basic (16-bit) product guide. See the Exchange Server-Enterprise product guide or the Exchange Server-Standard product guide for information about server compliance issues. See the Internet Explorer (16-bit) product guide or the Internet Explorer (32-bit) product guide for information about Internet Explorer compliance issues. Outlook 97 uses a number of Microsoft Office 97 shared files for the implementation of task automation, online help, installation, graphics, file find and file I/O. For additional information that is appropriate for Outlook 97, please refer either to the document for the particular Office version that this application came with, or, in the case of a standalone product, to any version 97 Microsoft Office document.

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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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