Hi. I have a problem !! [No, not that one ! ] Basically, I’m not a programmer, and need to find someone with some [ fairly basic] programming skills, which are really more in the nature of batch files I suppose. Here are the details:-

MS, in their infinite wisdom no longer support any of the programs I have bought and paid for, but they are old ones, so maybe that’s OK.
Whatever the reason, I am now forced to abandon XP, and also Office 2000, which I have always used.

So I got a laptop with Windows 7, which is very good. My problem is that Outlook 2000 won’t run on it. A well documented problem, I’ve found out. OK. Word and Excel are OK, so it’s just the PIM side of Outlook that I use. Thunderbird for emails is great.

So I’ve tried several PIMS, [currently like EssentialPIM], but it [ and most of them] won’t import from Outlook 2000.
They don’t read the .pst backup file. They can import a CSV file for contacts, and I’ve done that. The problem is the CALENDAR side, for Appointments etc. They only import from ICAL format. However, I can convert the Calendar.csv file to Ical through various conversion facilities.

However, in the course of this, I now find that all the dates in my Excel . CSV file that begin with a single digit [ as Excel always drops a leading 0,] have transposed the day with the month. So what should be 09/01/2011 has become 1/09/2011. And 05/08/2012 would become 8/05/2011.

Don’t ask me how or why, as it took me long enough just to discover what was happening, as you can imagine.!!

So if we call the Date field a 10 digit field, counting the separators as a digit, then basically the 1st digit [when 0 is being dropped, or the second if that doesn’t matter, ] then the 1st [ visible]and 5th digits are being transposed.
I have edited the first 200 or so manually, but as I have nearly 2000 to do, I thought there ‘must be an easier way”.
[Story of my life]!!

So whether I have to select the cells involved manually, or the script can start “Where the date field is 9 digits, or the first sub-field before the first separator contains only a single digit……etc”, it doesn’t really matter. Actually, on second thoughts it does, as I don’t need the ones I’ve already changed, changed back !

The important thing is that what runs can transpose the 5th and 2nd digits [ assuming the first zero has been dropped. Otherwise it becomes the 1st digit in a 9 digit field ?

I think !!

It wouldn’t even help me to buy Outlook 2013, as I’m sure the same thing will apply. It can’t import from Outlook 2000, and in any case, Outlook and Excel between them have totally screwed up the CSV exporting possibilities. And MS don’t support 2000 anymore. Or, and more to the point, their loyal customers !

ANY IDEAS ??