I do not - ever - send another lawyer a Word document unless I want him/her to make changes and send it back with the changes - in other words - it is a draft. Likewise with documents sent to clients.

I send pdf. That is the only way I know of to be sure that what the other side sees is what I saw when I sent it. What happens when I send my document to someone else? Will Word mess up my formatting? In addition, Word files can contain metadata, some of which might compromise client confidentiality or negotiation strategy.

When I receive a Word document from another attorney, I save it with a date as part of the name in the client file. I may freeze any dates if I think of it.

Most law firms are well aware of the vagaries of the date field. Many are not aware of metadata or the problems with text reflow.

The simplest way to prevent the problem in your own documents is to use a CREATEDATE field instead of a DATE field in your documents' templates. Using Date Fields in Microsoft Word Another option if not using a template (why aren't you using a template for common documents?) is to simply type the date. Typing the date puts text into the document rather than a field.

Generally when documents are prepared and mailed out physically, they are scanned in my office before they are mailed and the pdf is saved along with the Word version.