How can I turn off automatic date update on opening documents

Anonymous

Original Title: Word 2010

How can I turn off automatic date update on opening documents. I need to retain the dates letters were written. Step by step if possible!

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Suzanne S Barnhill 279.2K MVP Volunteer Moderator

The instructions are the same for letters and for templates, but if you are basing your letters on a template that includes a DATE field, then make the change in the template and you'll never have to do it in a letter again.

The reason that the date updates is that it is a DATE field, which always provides the current system date. What you want is a different field, the CREATEDATE field, which is updated once, when you create the document, and then stays the same forever after. You can read more about these and other fields at http://wordfaqs.mvps.org/datefields.htm.

To change your DATE field to a CREATEDATE field, press Alt+F9 to display the field code. Then just type CREATE before DATE, press Alt+F9 to toggle back, and press F9 to update.

If you put a CREATEDATE field in a document template, the template itself will always display the date it was created, but when you create a new document based on the template, the document will display the date IT was created. The nice thing about this is that the date that the document was created is stored within it at creation, so you can change a DATE field to CREATEDATE at any time to recover that original date even if the DATE field has updated to the current date.

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Charles Kenyon 170.9K Volunteer Moderator

How about this? Select date, right click, check "Preserve date". But that would be too simple, and there would be less need for de-obfuscators.

And how, exactly, does this help someone who has a document, created on a different day with a DATE field? Are you suggesting a change to Word rather than explaining to someone who has a problem how to fix it?

Preserve date might be less cryptic in this instance than "Unlink field," but it does not give you the original date. Assume a document written with a DATE field on October 23, 2009, saved as a new document on July 11, 2010, and today is August 13, 2012. What date is to be preserved? How do you tell the computer?

The best method, as I believe Suzanne mentioned is to have a template using the CreateDate field to start with. The next best solution is to manually change the field to a CreateDate field or unlink the field when the document is created so that it is plain text. Going backwards is always going to be a bit iffy, whether done manually or by some right-click menu choice.

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78 additional answers

Charles Kenyon 170.9K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2017-11-21T11:35:19+00:00
1. Word is a computer program.
2. If you do not tick the box for automatic update, you get text, not a field. That text does not change.
3. When I get a car, I read the owners manual to learn how things work. When I just make assumptions, sometimes I am right, sometimes wrong.
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Anonymous

2017-11-21T06:36:25+00:00

Hi Charles

Word is simply a tool. You would not expect to have to change the locks on your car just becasue you wanted to set the opening lock to open all the doors instead of just the drivers door!

Using such things as Date, Createdate etc is programing. I dont program my dishwasher when i use it I just select the option I want.

When setting up the format of the date ie Thursday, 12th January 2017, there is a block that says update date which you can tick or not. If you dont tick it the date should not update when you reopen the document. Don't think that is brain science for Word to work that way.
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Paul Edstein 82,871 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2017-11-21T05:49:03+00:00

it acts in a way that frustrates and confounds even the most astute users.

...

the real issue is that the average user doesn't understand what is going on.

Seems you want to have a bet each way. Anyone who invests the effort and takes a modicum of time to learn how Word works won't get caught by such features. The real issue isn't that 'the average user doesn't understand' but that the average user blunders along without giving much thought to what they're doing; they just assume things should be done in whatever way they want and that automatic dates will work in a particular way.

As for having a pop-up, consider how much detail the 'average' user would be required to digest before making an informed decision about what type of DATE field they want:

• CREATEDATE field: Inserts the date/time when the document was created or was last saved via Save As. If you create a document from a template, the field will show the date the document was created. If you open a template, the field will show the date the template was created.

• DATE field: Inserts the current date/time when the document or template was opened.

• PRINTDATE field: Inserts the date/time when document or template was last printed.

• SAVEDATE field: Inserts the date/time when document or template was last saved.

To understand these fields' update behaviour, see: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/211629/which-fields-are-updated-when-you-open--repaginate--or-print-document

Doubtless there'd be howls of protest if MS was to implement this, with users demanding: (a) a reversion to the former behaviour; or (b) a means of switching the pop-up off so they don't have to make a choice.
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