It appears that if you are using Google docs to do excel work you might run into a little trouble with dates (1/1/11) when you move to Microsoft Excel (Mac OS X).
If you create a google spreadsheet and insert the date 3/1/11, save it to your desktop and open it with Microsoft Excel (Mac OS X) everything appears to look fine, but it isn't. If you attempt to copy the date from the original spreadsheet to another spreadsheet the date will change to four years in the future, 1/1/15.
Come to find out, Google has Day 1 listed as 1/1/1900 where Microsoft has it listed as 1/1/1904, a difference of 4 years, hence the leap from 11 to 15.
(special thanks to MichaelRH, http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google%20Docs/thread?tid=2d848674b93637f6&hl=en)
However, as pointed out by my brother Mike if you use libre office you get the date you want and none of the funny business. So as Mike so eloquently put it, "libre office ftw".
It was pointed out by a colleague that you can go into the preferences of excel and uncheck the box for the 1904 date, but this still leaves the problem that if someone else hasn't changed theirs you will run into the same problem.
ReplyDeleteSo, once again, libreoffice FTW....