FileMaker Pro 4.1v2 Does Four-Digit Years

FileMaker, Inc. has released a free 1.2 MB update to FileMaker Pro 4.1v2, which primarily enhances the way FileMaker copes with two-digit years in dates. Essentially, all dates that specify a two-digit year are now converted to dates with four-digit years, including dates in field displays, printed output, find queries, and other areas of the program. These changes help remove some ambiguities in FileMaker’s date handling that can create confusion amongst FileMaker Pro users and developers, especially with the approach of the year 2000 – see "Parsing Like It’s 1999" in TidBITS 475 for discussion of Y2K issues on the Macintosh. The update also fixes a handful of bugs and date-related importing issues and offers stricter validation options for date, time, and numeric values entered into fields. The FileMaker Pro 4.1v2 updater operates with the Worldwide English edition of FileMaker Pro 4.1v1; it doesn’t work with localized versions of FileMaker Pro or with any version of FileMaker Pro 4.0 or earlier. Thus, the FileMaker Pro 4.1v2 update leaves many existing FileMaker Pro users in a lurch, since the ODBC features that appeared in FileMaker Pro 4.1 weren’t worth paying $150 (with rebate) to upgrade. (See "FileMaker Pro 4.1 Does ODBC for a Price" in TidBITS 447.)