Works 2000: Year Function Does Not Return Accurate Date

If you use the year function in a formula that is designed to calculate the year 2000 in Microsoft Works Spreadsheet, the year may be calculated incorrectly.

This problem may occur if the following conditions are true:

• The date entered in the date cell is later than 12/31/1999.
• The cell in which you want to calculate the year is formatted as a date.

To work around this problem, use one of the following methods.

Calculate a 4-Digit Year

To calculate a 4-digit year:

1. In Works Spreadsheet, click the cell in which you want the year to be calculated.
2. On the Format menu, click Number.
3. Under Format, click the General option, and then click OK.
   
   Note Do not click the Date option. If you do, the formula cannot calculate the year properly.
4. Type the following formula in the cell
   =year(date)+1900
   where date is the date cell from which the preceding formula derives the year.

Calculate a 2-Digit Year

To calculate a 2-digit year:

1. In Works Spreadsheet, click the cell in which you want the year to be calculated.
2. On the Format menu, click Number.
3. Under Format, click the Leading Zeros option.
4. In the Number of digits box, type 2, and then click OK.
   
   Note Do not click the Date option. If you do, the formula cannot calculate the year properly.
5. Type the following formula in the cell
   =year(date)-100
   where date is the date cell from which the preceding formula derives the year.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

If you run Microsoft Works 4.x without having installed the Y2K patch, the year may be calculated as 0. If this is the case, download and install the Works 4.x Y2K patch from the following Microsoft Web site: Note This patch does not fix the issue listed in the "Resolution" section of this article, but it does allow Works Spreadsheet to recognize dates in the year 2000 and later.