Greetings. Re: MSNBC and Excel not being Y2K compliant.

My question: Will Excel work or not? Detailed reading gets me lost and the answer is not clear. Can you folks give me a straight answer? Thanks, Pete

-- Pete (Phytorx@lanset.com), August 25, 1999

Answers

In simple terms, Excel has a function which is used in some formulas to reference dates.

To do that you normally enter into the cell the following: =Date(99,23,08) and what you would see in the cell depending on how you had it formatted was this

08/23/1999

Seems that when you enter =Date(00,23,08) you get 08/23/1900

To get around this when using this particular function simply type in =Date(2000,08,23) and you will get the correct 08/23/2000

This won't matter much to the average spreadsheet user, because the average spreadsheet user doesn't know their ass from a hole in the ground anyway, and it won't matter to large corps for the most part who probably process their complex amorts etc on larger proprietary systems. Where it will show up is in the small to med. sized company that had just enough money to hire vinny's cousin who is a wizard to make us these macros.......you get the picture.

Hope that helps.

-- Gordon (g_gecko_69@hotmail.com), August 25, 1999.

Yeah, all those SMEs who are reportedly the mainstays of the current economy. Companies which may or may not be able to trust the results of their calcs.

*sigh*

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), August 26, 1999.

Here's the skinney on excel. If you have excel in the Office 97 bundle you are, and will always be, SOL. But, Bill Gates (aka Satan) has the fix. All you have to do is buy Office 2000. MS has no plans to develop patches for Office 97.

Good luck

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@Y2KOK.ORG), August 26, 1999.