system formats

[stefangs]

hope this is the right section...

i have worked on a file which was originally created on a different system (danish, i think) and now the display is different for numbers etc. i have set 'use system formats' to on, but it's not making a difference. actually, the command doesn't appear any longer, perhaps because i turn it on via an open script, or because the file is opened as part of a solution. i remember reading a while back in one of the topics that you can save a clone and then import into that, but that didn't do it either. rebuilding the file from scratch would be very time-consuming - can i change the file somehow so that it appears as if it was created on an english system?

[CobaltSky]

Hi Stefan,

To achieve this you will first need to set all your system settings to the UK conventions, then reboot your machine.

After that, if you save the file as a clone, it should take on the UK settings that are active in the system, as its defaults for data entry (ie when "Use System Formats" is *not* on, the UK formats will apply).

The only valid reason why a file does not show the Use System Formats command when open is because its defaults are already set up to match those of the system it is open on. If you've already saved the file as a clone, that would explain why Use System Formats is not showing. In which case, you might like to take a close look at the fields you are having format problems with - unless the file is corrupt, you should find that if you take off all custom formats, the fields conform to the formats defined at your operating system level?!

[stefangs]

very interesting - you were completely right: i removed the custom formatting. a number like 3.65 showed up as 3.65 instead of 3,65 as it did before. my assumption was that 'localizing' the file with the clone procedure would also update the format options, for example it would put 'Yes' and 'No' into the boolean number formats. well it doesn't. so even though the file is localized, you still need to manually update the format options. i hope i'm correct now. i manually changed the decimal separator from comma to period. thank you!