X

AppleWorks 6 date formatting bug

AppleWorks 6 date formatting bug

CNET staff
Michael Elliott spotted a date formatting bug in AppleWorks 6.0.4 (which we confirmed): Using a spreadsheet, enter: 10/09/2000. Naturally...you get 10/09/2000. Now try 10/10/2000. You get 10/10/00! The year has been changed to two digit format. This continues for days 11-31. Starting with 11/01/2000, it displays correctly again...until the 10th of the month! And so on...no matter what the month or year. [Marc De Sweemer notes that this glitch did not occur with the Dutch version of AppleWorks.] Update: Bryan Forrest replies: "It appears that if the date is keyed in with the leading zero, 10/01/2000, for example, rather than 10/1/2000, the computer assumes the date to be text rather than a number. That's why the formatting isn't changing on the dates. Once dates reach double digits, the computer correctly identifies it as a number again, rather than text. The problem is with how the program views single digit dates, when keyed in as forced double digits (01, 02, 03, etc.)."