(Very important!)


Hi all!
Based on the Document Properties a person was accused of writing a final contract, which in reality was made by his boss 2 years later after the first sample document (not .dot template) of the contract was created on another computer by the person.
To help him avoid the absurd accusations I (as a sysadmin) need know perfectly how does MS Word-2003 change date properties (i.e. automatically) while copying a document onto another device/directory under the same (or another) filename? Why sometimes creation date is later than printed date when we look at the Document Properties window? Where can I find links or other materials? Thanks in advance!

There is nothing about file date/time stamps that can reliably be used to determine when a file was first created. If you download a file from an email attachment, for example, it typically will be given the current date/time stamp. This dating is under the control of the operating system, not Word.

Word does store some date-based metadata about files of its own, such as the CreationDate, PrintDate and SaveDate, but these are all easily changed. A CREATEDATE field initially shows when a document was created (according to the PC's clock - that too can be changed). After that, though, it can be re-set to the current date & time by saving the file via Save As. Obviously, if it was last printed before the Save As occurred, a PRINTDATE field would show an earlier date than a CREATEDATE field. In any event, the PrintDate data only update if the file is re-saved after printing.

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Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Dear macropod, thank you very-very much for your explanation. It becomes clear, that date-time field is really unreliable. But what is known about the "Author" field - is it possible to change it at any time as well as a person field, who changed the document later? Or the first field (Author) is protected from user's resetting in word-2003 and modified-by field is not (protected)?
Great thanks in advance!!

The author property stays with documents and those created based on them.

However, it easily changed without any special technical skills from within Word.

Thank you very much, Charles! I guess, this forum is (or is not) a part of MS server pool? Is it possible to refer to the forum as to the official MS site?

No, this forum is not affiliated with Microsoft. This is stated at the bottom of this web page.

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Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

[quote=alex2015;76723]To the extent there is an official forum it would be
Word - Microsoft Answers

Thank you very much, Charles and all other colleagues who helped! Thanks a lot!