Date Inclusions

[john_dora]

Hello,
I am only new to Appleworks 6. When I bought my copy of the programme I spent a couple of weeks reading and trying things before beginning to use the programme in earnest.
I bought the programme to use in my Genealogical efforts in making Databases for the various names I have in my files.
Some of the names in those files go back to the 16th & 17th Centuries so the years to be put into the D/B often need the 4 digits of a year , EG: 1746. For some obscure reason my copy of Appleworks keeps telling me that those dates are invalid. I have tried everything but can get the 4 numbers into an entry for only a short time. It allows me to type them in and they appear on the D/B briefly, but then disappear so the programme is useless to me like that. Can anybody offer any advice on how to go about overcoming this problem , I would be much obliged if you could help,

John

[Barry]

Hello,
I am only new to Appleworks 6. When I bought my copy of the programme I spent a couple of weeks reading and trying things before beginning to use the programme in earnest.
I bought the programme to use in my Genealogical efforts in making Databases for the various names I have in my files.
Some of the names in those files go back to the 16th & 17th Centuries so the years to be put into the D/B often need the 4 digits of a year , EG: 1746. For some obscure reason my copy of Appleworks keeps telling me that those dates are invalid. I have tried everything but can get the 4 numbers into an entry for only a short time. It allows me to type them in and they appear on the D/B briefly, but then disappear so the programme is useless to me like that. Can anybody offer any advice on how to go about overcoming this problem , I would be much obliged if you could help,

John

Hi John,

Try changing the Date format of the fields to one of the text+number formats (Jan. 5, 2007). To change the format, press shift-command-L to enter Layout mode, double click on the date field, then choose a format from the popup list.

The problem seems to arise from AppleWorks being an OS 9 and earlier application, carbonised to operate in OS X. In OS 9, IIRC, there was an option to "always show century" in the system date format preferences. That option does not seem to be available in the 'standard' International region formats available in System Preferences in OS X. AW picks up the all numeric format option from System Preferences.

You might consider moving to a more specialized application for geneological work. Take a look at Reunion 9, from Leister Productions. My wife has been using this (version 7, then 8) for her geneological research, and seems quite happy with it.

Regards,
Barry

[Peggy]

Hello,
I am only new to Appleworks 6. When I bought my copy of the programme I spent a couple of weeks reading and trying things before beginning to use the programme in earnest.
I bought the programme to use in my Genealogical efforts in making Databases for the various names I have in my files.
Some of the names in those files go back to the 16th & 17th Centuries so the years to be put into the D/B often need the 4 digits of a year , EG: 1746. For some obscure reason my copy of Appleworks keeps telling me that those dates are invalid. I have tried everything but can get the 4 numbers into an entry for only a short time. It allows me to type them in and they appear on the D/B briefly, but then disappear so the programme is useless to me like that. Can anybody offer any advice on how to go about overcoming this problem , I would be much obliged if you could help,

John

Hi John,

Try changing the Date format of the fields to one of the text+number formats (Jan. 5, 2007). To change the format, press shift-command-L to enter Layout mode, double click on the date field, then choose a format from the popup list.

The problem seems to arise from AppleWorks being an OS 9 and earlier application, carbonised to operate in OS X. In OS 9, IIRC, there was an option to "always show century" in the system date format preferences. That option does not seem to be available in the 'standard' International region formats available in System Preferences in OS X. AW picks up the all numeric format option from System Preferences.

You might consider moving to a more specialized application for geneological work. Take a look at Reunion 9, from Leister Productions. My wife has been using this (version 7, then 8) for her geneological research, and seems quite happy with it.

Regards,
Barry

It's not as easy to find, but it is easy to set the system date to show 4 digits for the year. Go to System Preferences > International > Formats & click Customize… in the Dates section. Now, choose Show: Short, click on the year number & a disclosure triangle will appear. Choose the 4-digit year, click OK & the Region should now say Custom.

[Barry]

It's not as easy to find, but it is easy to set the system date to show 4 digits for the year. Go to System Preferences > International > Formats & click Customize… in the Dates section. Now, choose Show: Short, click on the year number & a disclosure triangle will appear. Choose the 4-digit year, click OK & the Region should now say Custom.

Thanks, Peggy.

I knew I'd seen that somewhere on the iBook since getting it. Checking it again today leads me to think I explored the feature previously and found it didn't work with AppleWorks.

Changing to a Custom format brings up the caution that "This region can only be used by Unicode applications. WorldScript applicatins will use the last compatible region."

And relaunching AppleWorks then opening a new spreadsheet or database and setting the date to the all number format still leaves me with "10/14/07" rather than the "2007/10/14" I set in International > Formats.

Regards,
Barry

[Peggy]

It's not as easy to find, but it is easy to set the system date to show 4 digits for the year. Go to System Preferences > International > Formats & click Customize… in the Dates section. Now, choose Show: Short, click on the year number & a disclosure triangle will appear. Choose the 4-digit year, click OK & the Region should now say Custom.

Thanks, Peggy.

I knew I'd seen that somewhere on the iBook since getting it. Checking it again today leads me to think I explored the feature previously and found it didn't work with AppleWorks.

Changing to a Custom format brings up the caution that "This region can only be used by Unicode applications. WorldScript applicatins will use the last compatible region."

And relaunching AppleWorks then opening a new spreadsheet or database and setting the date to the all number format still leaves me with "10/14/07" rather than the "2007/10/14" I set in International > Formats.

Regards,
Barry

Odd. I don't get that warning & entering a date as 10/14/07 in a spreadsheet or database expands to 10/14/2007.

[Barry]

It's not as easy to find, but it is easy to set the system date to show 4 digits for the year. Go to System Preferences > International > Formats & click Customize… in the Dates section. Now, choose Show: Short, click on the year number & a disclosure triangle will appear. Choose the 4-digit year, click OK & the Region should now say Custom.

Thanks, Peggy.

I knew I'd seen that somewhere on the iBook since getting it. Checking it again today leads me to think I explored the feature previously and found it didn't work with AppleWorks.

Changing to a Custom format brings up the caution that "This region can only be used by Unicode applications. WorldScript applicatins will use the last compatible region."

And relaunching AppleWorks then opening a new spreadsheet or database and setting the date to the all number format still leaves me with "10/14/07" rather than the "2007/10/14" I set in International > Formats.

Regards,
Barry

Odd. I don't get that warning & entering a date as 10/14/07 in a spreadsheet or database expands to 10/14/2007.

That sent me off on a further investigation. The cause seems to be that I was customizng from the Canada Region setting (which alredy brings up the Unicode/WorldScript warning).

Starting from the United States region, the 2007 form takes, and AppleWorks picks it up in an already open document. This is true for both the US order (10/14/2007) and a further customization changing to the SI order (2007/10/14).

But if I change currency to Canadian Dollar, the currency notation in Preferences shows "Can$1234.56", probably due to this being a foreign currency in the selected (base) region.

That observation hinted at the answer to a question I had posted here and at Apple Discussions regarding AppleWorks replacing "$" with "£" as the currency sign some time ago. I suspect it happened when I was messing around with the Intenational settings. Whoever wrote them aparently thinks Canada is still using the Pound Sterling as the currency unit. It's back to "$" now.

Regards,
Barry