Bailybj, a more reasonable solution is located at: split delimiters II, but this uses split, per your request(s).

but in the spirit of TIMTOWTDI, here is my entry for knuckleheaded-code-of-the-day (hey, it's monday but fun is still allowed, eh?)

again, you may just want to do it smarter than this :-)

#!/bin/perl
while (<DATA>) {
    my $line = $_;
    $line =~ s/[A-Z,a-z,\>,\(,\),\-,\[,\],\:\_]/ /g;   # remove stuff
    my ($dt,$ev,$id,$st) = split(/\s+/,$line);         # split on spac
+es 
    print "Date:$dt\nEvent:$ev\nId:$id\nStatus:$st\n"; # tada!
}


__DATA__
2001/03/12 time>Event [21]Alert Completed (34562), Status: [22] Alert 
+Completed,MN_netware-support
[download]

which outputs:

xdev$ ./split.pl
Date:2001/03/12
Event:21
Id:34562
Status:22
[download]

have fun!