I have a global filed called year. Every year I create a new file and am able to change the display of the year by entering on any screen and it will show that year on all screens displaying that global field. This file I just moved to my FM9 server (was fm6 not on server before) and workstations access this file via the server. When I change the year it changes on all screens. After closing and reopening my change is gone! HELP!

See here on how served global fields work.

http://faq.filemakermagazine.com/index.php/Global_fields

Thanks. I'm enlightened. Am I to guess that in order to do what I need to do I should just create an additional text filed and have it insert the year when record created.

I am not sure why you create a new file every year...

You should store the year into a preferences table record if its something that you need to change manually.

If its is simply to display the year on a layout, you can do this instead.

Type // on the screen. Then right click on it and select Date format. Use the custom date format so that it only shows the year.