Meeting the Year 2000 Challenge

Microsoft has expanded and emphasized testing for year 2000 related issues in all Microsoft products, including Microsoft Office 2000. All products meet (or meet with minor issues) the requirements of the Microsoft Year 2000 Compliance Statement before they are released to manufacturing.

 Note    If date-related issues are identified after a product is released, Microsoft addresses them through standard Microsoft Technical Support channels at no additional cost.

Consistent with Microsoft’s policy of compliance, Office 2000 is prepared for the year 2000 in the following ways:

• Office 2000 applications store and calculate dates by using a four-digit year format.
• Date fields contain only date functionality.
• Office 2000 applications carry out accurate leap-year calculations.

If your organization uses technology from vendors other than Microsoft, including custom Excel macros or Access reports, then the following date issues might present problems in the year 2000:

• Two-digit and four-digit date formats

  Some applications use a two-digit rather than a four-digit date format to represent the year. With a two-digit format, some applications cannot reliably determine which century to use for the year 00 calculations.

• Date fields that contain more than the date

  Date fields sometimes contain not only the date, but also special functions that begin or end on a specific date. Date functions vary among organizations, so no single tool can provide consistent date and function adjustments.

• Year 2000 leap-year anomaly

  The year 2000 is an unusual leap year that happens only once every 400 years. A typical leap year is divisible by 4. However, years that are divisible by 100 are not leap years unless they are also divisible by 400. Some software systems and applications use a simple set of rules to calculate a leap year and do not recognize the year 2000 as a leap year.