Microsoft Year 2000 Readiness Disclosure & Resource Center

Product Summary

Product: Excel 5.0 Version: Category: Compliant# Operating System: 16-Bit Win Language: Hebrew Release Date: N/A Operational Range: 01 Jan 1900 - 01 Dec 2078 Prerequisites: None Product Dependencies: Hebrew Windows 3.x, Hebrew Windows 95/98 in both enabled and localized versions, Hebrew Windows 95/98, Windows NT 4 Enabled Clock Dependencies: System clock Last Updated: 14 Jan 1999

Product Details

Special Note for Hebrew version of Excel: Hebrew Excel 5 supports Hebrew Lunar calendar. Hebrew Excel 5 has the ability to parse a date into lunar Hebrew date. Day one of Gregorian (01/01/01 A.D.) is equivalent to 06-Tavis -3761 in Hebrew. Hebrew Excel 5 will try to format the date entered in a cell based on the Calendar chosen from the Tools/Options dialog, Hebrew tab. Also Excel 5 will follow the Short Date format set from the Control Panel (ex: MM/dd/yy) Hebrew Excel 5 allows Hebrew, English, and Transliterated English for month names. Hebrew Excel 5 also has the ability to format a Gregorian date into a Hebrew date by adding the prefix "B2" to the beginning of the format type, e.g. applying the format B2mm/dd/yy to the Gregorian date 12/31/98 in Hebrew Excel results in the Hebrew date 12-Tavis-5759. The "B2" string is applied in the Format Cells dialog, Number tab, Date category, or by using the NumberFormat property of the Range object using Visual Basic. To convert Hebrew date into Gregorian, the "B2" prefix is omitted or the calendar option is changed to Gregorian in Tools/Optionsà To convert a date from Gregorian to Hebrew, the prefix "B2" is applied or the calendar option is changed to Lunar in Tools/Optionsà There is only one form of Hebrew calendar (Lunar Hebrew). Hebrew Excel 5 does not parse a year into YYYY (4-digit year) even if the short date format in Control Panel was set to YYYY. Excel will start parsing a 4-digit year only when the user adds that format from Format Cells dialog.   How the product handles dates: Storage. Microsoft Excel stores dates as numeric values, with day #1 being 1900/1/1. Excel 5 recognizes 01-JAN-1900 through 31-DEC-2078 as valid dates. Excel 5 adds 1900 or 2000 (based on 1920 cutoff) to 2-digit years, when a cell is formatted with the B2 prefix. This means that 2-digit years from 20-99 will refer to 1920-1999, while 2-digit years ranging from 00-19 refer to 2000-2019. If the calendar in Tools/Options is Lunar, Hebrew Excel 5 adds the year 5700 to a date with 2-digit year. Parsing on date entry. If a user enters a date in a "yy-m-d" format, less than 20 is 20XX, and equal to or greater than 20 is 19XX. From a Hebrew Lunar point of view, the Year 2000 issue is not a critical problem because currently Lunar years are represented with 3 digits, with 5000 added implicitly.   Common date usage errors: If a date is pasted from one application to another using only the last two digits of the year, Microsoft Excel might parse the date differently than the originating application calculated it. Example: In a non-Excel application, you have the date January 1, 1915. The user copies the date, but the system settings are "M/d/yy", and the text that is copied is the text "1-1-15". When the user pastes "1-1-15" into Microsoft Excel, it will parse the date to January 1, 2015. Such an error can also occur when one application is using a "M/d/yy" format while another application is using a "d/M/yy" format. This also applies to importing dates from text files. (See Knowledge Base articles Q180159 for more information.) The DATE() function is not designed to take 2-digit year shortcuts since it receives numeric parameters. The DATE() function calculates a number less than 1900 as an offset from 1900. So, if you were to enter a formula such as =DATE(15,1,1), the resulting date would be January 1, 1915, not 2015. The user cannot pass the DATE()function Hebrew year, month and day. Recording date entry in a macro records the year in a YY (2-digit year) format, which can cause problems if the two-digit year is not meant to follow the 1920-2019 date window that is mentioned above. To avoid confusion or miscalculations Hebrew Excel 5 users should maintain a single type of date representation on the same sheet. If users decide to use Lunar, then they should use only Lunar dates.   Testing guidelines and recommendations: In general, avoid testing in a production environment or with non-duplicated production files because side effects with other products are difficult to predict. Interoperability testing with other Microsoft Office products can be conducted safely. Testing Microsoft understands that for various reasons customers may be required to conduct their own year 2000 certification testing. Microsoft provides the tests below to aid customers in conducting their own year 2000 certification of Microsoft Excel. Users who work with dates in Microsoft Excel will benefit from changing the system short date format to one that uses a 4-digit year, (i.e. "yyyy/mm/dd"). This change will allow the user to clearly see the century of a date. Conducting the below tests is only worthwhile if 4-digit years are used. If you decide not to set your system short date format to include a 4-digit year, you can format each cell individually by selecting Format/Cells/Number, Date category, and entering a 4-digit year format. To change the system short date format, press the Start button, then select Settings, Control Panel, Regional Settings, select the Date page, then change the Short Date Style to a format that includes a 4-digit year by replacing the "yy" portion with "yyyy". Verify that Hebrew Excel 5 transitions correctly into the year 2000 when the Locale in Regional Settings is set to Hebrew. Warning! Before conducting this test, make sure you do not have software containing a license that expires by the year 2000. This is especially common with beta copies of software programs. If a program determines that its license has expired it is possible the program will no longer boot, even after resetting the system clock. Changing a system clock on a network can affect other computers connected to the network so it is highly recommended isolating the computer from other systems before changing the system clock to conduct the following test. Set the system clock to 11:59 p.m. December 31, 1999 and then format the cell into B2dd/mm/yyyy. Start Hebrew Excel 5. In cell A1 (cell R1C1 if in R1C1 mode), enter =NOW(). After one minute, press {F9} to recalculate the formula you entered in A1. The resulting date shown should be 22/04/5760 Hebrew Lunar Calendar and nothing unusual has happened to Microsoft Excel. Remember to reset your system clock to the correct time and date after conducting this test. Verify that Microsoft Excel recognizes the year 2000 as a leap year. Start Excel. In cell A1 (cell R1C1 if in R1C1 mode), enter "=DATE(2000,2,28)+1". The resulting date should be February 29, indicating that Excel correctly recognizes that 2000 is a leap year.

Return to Search Screen

If after reviewing this information you have additional questions related to this product, click here.

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.

This site is being designated as a Year 2000 Readiness Disclosure and the information contained herein is provided pursuant to the terms hereof and the Year 2000 Information and Readiness Disclosure Act.