If a Word document is saved using 'Save As', its created date becomes the 'Save As' date. This can lead to the scenario you describe. And, because a document can be re-saved at any time via 'Save As', you cannot tell from its contents when it was originally created. Besides, there's nothing to stop someone copying the content to a new file, closing & deleting the old file, then saving the new one with the same filename. In such a scenario, the file is both physically and logically a new one.

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Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]