Hi guys,

I have FMS Advanced 10 running on a dedicated server (IIS) and FMP10 installed on various machines on the same network, some of which are Macs and some of which are PCs. In my database I have date fields, among other things.

My problem is that when entering a date in a date field on a PC, filemaker requires that the date be input in the form of DD/MM/YYYY whereas on a Mac it requires the form YYYY/MM/DD. This is also how the date is displayed on the respective machines, regardless of how I have actually entered the data. I need consistency here as much of the data entry is done by importing excel tables, and there are some date calculations being performed as well.

Any ideas on what i could do?

Dates very often cause problems. The first of all - different OS use different start date: MS DOS 1.jan 1980, IBM -1.jan 1900, MacOS X – 1.jan 1904,Windows – 1.jan 1601.

Use Drop-down Calendar for correct input. You get correct input without problems.

Or separate Date in Day, Month, Year and compile it again on screen.

Or recalculate date via checking OS.

To avoid problems I use date separation and recalculation - import date in text field, find Day, Month, Year and put them together via Date calculation.

Not so good - it is necessary to see Excel file before importing.

I think that the date format is a system preference that can be changed on you PC's or your Macs. I am not sure right off where that is in your control panels, but it may be under what ever passes for localization.

MM/DD/YYYY is an American format.

DD/MM/YYY is European ( and I think Government of Canada) format.

The previous poster's comment on using the drop down calendar or using separate fields with drop down lists tocreate dates for data entry is a good work around. I am always a little leary of letting people hand enter dates. It is too easy for Feb 1, 2010 to become Jan 2 2010 - depending on the format recognized.