There are some general Y2K testing procedures (outlined in the sidebar “The Final Countdown”) that can help you start troubleshooting. If you use customized databases, scripts, or macros, you need to figure out how they’ll handle the year 2000. Again, if you can’t work around it, you’ll have to switch to another program. With older programs, you may find that although the software has known Y2K problems, the company is out of business or no longer supports the product. And those of you who own older Macs may find that some new versions are available only for PowerPC-based Macs or that the software requires more RAM or disk space than your current Macintosh can provide. If a program has problems, a corrected version may be available, but it’s probably the most recent release with an upgrade fee. Generally, programs that manipulate date information, such as genealogy software and spreadsheets, are more liable to suffer Y2K mishaps than software such as an Adobe Photoshop filter that never considers dates. Most companies dedicate a section of their Web site to product-specific Y2K information (also see the sidebar “Proceed with Caution”). Just to be safe, check with the makers of all the software you usefrom word processors and graphics applications to accounting packages and backup programsto see if the programs have been properly tested for the date change and if any problems were found. But to be on the safe side, keep track of the versions of each application and any special features you’ve created, such as sorting formulas, spreadsheet macros, and scheduling shortcuts. Aside from some minor software tweaks, your faithful Mac should be ready to go when the big apple drops. (See the sidebar “It Could Happen to You.”)īefore you panic, take comfort in the fact that you’re using a Mac. It’s not that these applications aren’t ready for the new year (although some have isolated issues) but that certain folks who use them to build special formulas and macros may not know how to handle the year 2000 correctly. Spreadsheets, databases, scripts, and macros built with everything from FileMaker Pro, Microsoft Excel, and AppleScript are all prime candidates for date-related snafus. The most-commonand most-troublesomeY2K concerns for Macintosh users are in customized software and scripts. Similarly, your Mac OS programs may inherit date problems when you use files from other operating systems or those produced by programs with Y2K problems. The fact is, not all programs were created to take advantage of the Mac’s Y2K savvy.įrequently, you’ll find that applications used on the Macintosh may not be able to use the Mac’s built-in date capabilities (see the sidebar “Proceed with Caution”). To avoid ambiguity, get into the habit of using four-digit years when entering dates to help isolate Y2K problems.Įven though the Mac OS doesn’t have a problem interpreting far-reaching dates, that doesn’t mean your software will handle the year 2000. If entering “” doesn’t produce the intended result, you’ve got trouble. However, that same program would have a Y2K problem if it misinterpreted a date with century information. Although this confusion can be annoying, technically you’ve entered a date with no century informationit might as easily refer to the year 1300 as the year 2000and you have to hope your computer is smart enough to know which century you mean. If you enter a date in the format “1/31/00,” a database program may read the date as January 31, 1900, even if the current date is well into the twenty-first century. Some programs may interpret dates differently than you’d like. (See the sidebar “It Could Happen to You.”) In such cases, computers must make assumptions about that information to use it at all. Some errors arise because the computers are dealing with incomplete date information, such as years expressed with only two digits. However, even though your Macintosh hardware and OS are ready for the year 2000, that doesn’t mean your softwareespecially custom databases, macros, and spreadsheetswill function correctly once the new year arrives.įundamentally, all Y2K problems stem from a computer system’s inability to correctly process century information in dates.
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