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June 10, 1999

When you upgrade to Microsoft Office 2000 as part of your year 2000 strategy, you can use the Microsoft Excel Date Fix Wizard to help identify potentially ambiguous 2-digit year date formats in Microsoft Excel workbooks.

Use the Excel Date Fix Wizard to perform the following tasks:

• Scan existing Excel workbooks and create a report that identifies all workbooks and templates that contain dates.
• Convert the year component of date formats from 2 digits to 4 digits, and then confirm the accuracy of the conversion.
• Modify serial dates so that they fall within the correct century.

Toolbox   The Office Resource Kit (orktools.exe) includes the Excel Date Fix Wizard and several other Excel date utilities in the folder Excel Tools. You can find this downloadable file on the Office 2000 Resource Kit Downloads page.

Excel stores dates as sequential numbers known as serial values. Serial values allow Excel to perform calculations on dates. The Excel Date Fix Wizard scans spreadsheets for serial dates that might not clearly represent the century in which the date falls.

To scan for Excel files with serial dates

1. On the Excel 2000 Tools menu, point to Date Migration, and then click Date Fix Wizard.
2. On the Step 2 of 4 panel, click Scan for dates in a selected folder.
3. In the Select a folder to scan box, enter the path to the folder or drive you want to scan.

   You can use the Browse button to locate the folder; however, you must still enter the path manually in the text box.

4. To include subfolders in your search, select the Include subfolders check box.
5. Click Finish to start the search.

The wizard generates a report that lists all files with potential date-related issues. The report displays the name of the folder, the date and time of the scan, and a list of all XLS and XLT files that contain serial dates in any of the cells in the file.

Tip   A text file included with the Excel Date Fix Wizard provides more details about how to install and use the wizard. On the Start menu, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Office Tools, point to Microsoft Office 2000 Resource Kit Tools, and then click Excel Tools. Open the file Datefixw.txt.

Related links

With a few exceptions, Office 2000 applications are ready for the year 2000. For more information about how you can prepare for and manage the transition, see Meeting the Year 2000 Challenge in the Office 2000 Resource Kit.