FileMaker Pro 4.1 Mac User's Guide

Appendix B: Working with international files
When you create or clone a database file, FileMaker Pro uses the current
settings in the Numbers and Date & Time control panels as the default
date, time, and number formats and stores them internally with the file.
These system formats control how FileMaker Pro enters and indexes
data in these field types.
The internal default formats saved with a file may be different from the
system formats currently set on your computer when:
1 you receive or share a file with different internal default formats
1 you changed the system formats on your computer after creating or
cloning the file
For example, a file created on a U.S. system has different formats from
a file created on a German system, as shown in the following example.
For this
field type
A U.S. system format
may look like this
Number 1.23
(Decimal separator is a period (.))
Date 12/31/98 31.12.1998
Time 2:15:58 PM 14:15:58
A German system format
may look like this
1,23
(Decimal separator is a comma (,))