Word for MS-DOS: Corruption When Updating Summary Information

ID: Q68181

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word for MS-DOS, version 5.0

SYMPTOMS

When you save a document in Word for MS-DOS version 5.0, the summary information may become corrupt or the system may lock up if the computer's system clock is set to a date that is not between 1/1/80 and 12/31/99.

The problem seems to occur regardless of whether the Summary Sheet field is set to No or Yes in the Options menu. Also, the problem does not occur in earlier versions of Word or in Word version 5.50.

CAUSE

If the system clock is set to a date with a year of 2000 or later, the "creation date" and "revision date" fields will default to invalid dates the first time the document is saved.

For example, if the system date is November 8, 2010, the creation and revision dates will appear as 11/8/110 when the document is saved. Word will not accept this date and prompts with the error message "Not a valid date format." The summary information will be saved incorrectly regardless of whether ESC is pressed or the dates are changed to valid dates.

If a file that has been saved under these conditions is selected and updated in the Library Document Retrieval menu, the summary information will become corrupted with strange characters, text from other menus, or other file names (the dates will probably change to 00/00/00). In some cases, if the file has been saved several times, the computer will hang.

This problem will occur even if No is selected in the Summary Sheet field in the Options menu.

WORKAROUND

Once a the summary information for a file has been corrupted in this manner, use the following steps to correct the problem:

At the MS-DOS prompt, type date and press ENTER. Type a new date that is between 1/1/80 and 12/31/99.

Choose Transfer Load, and type the name of the corrupted file.

Choose Transfer Save, type a new file name, and press ENTER.

When Word prompts for the summary information, the information will still appear corrupted. Press ESC (instead of ENTER).

The new file should no longer have corrupted summary information.

If the computer resets the date to the year 2000 or later on start-up, the date will need to be changed with a system configuration disk (the instructions for setting the computer's system date will vary depending on the computer manufacturer).

STATUS

This problem has been corrected in Microsoft Word version 5.5 for MS-DOS.

Additional query words: y2k

Keywords : kbhw kbusage kb2000
Version : MS-DOS:5.0
Platform : MS-DOS
Issue type : kbbug