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

Anonymous

2016-05-07T09:01:18+00:00

It seems long ago I originated this post and found a way of solving it by picking my way through the various helpful and sometimes seemingly very complicated answers. Looking at all this, I do wonder who would want any dates altered from the original creation date and why this feature has been put in as a default. To many new users, it comes as a shock that they have lost all their original dates if they want to print out an old letter etc. I do accept that in some business applications it will probably have its uses, but for the home user it really does need a program redesign to turn off this feature with a click.
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Charles Kenyon 170.9K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2016-05-09T00:44:05+00:00

You've got to be kidding me... all I want to do is turn off the auto date feature to retain the original document date from either what I've created or has been email to me when viewing or printing. You're telling me there is no easy method of a mouse click or simple keystroke within the options menu? Please advise this non power, illiterate Office user there's a simplistic way of accomplishing this.

If the original author put in a Date field (please update every time someone uses this document) that is what you get. The program works as designed.

If you want to simply type a date, you can do that. You can put in a date field for the date the document is created. You can unlink the field when you insert it. (Ctrl+6) will do this. Personally, I use templates that contain a CreateDate field. That fixes the date on my system for most purposes. I seldom send Word documents out of my office, I send as pdf.

Using Date Fields in Microsoft Word
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Anonymous

2016-05-18T22:34:49+00:00

Josmarie,

Thank you for your post. I have followed it for only the last four months and have been exceedingly frustrated with the fixes suggested, and the arrogance associated with replies from the team, particularly the attourney at law.

Having been a word user for many years, and only having this happen to me recently after years and thousands of documents, the last entry by the attourney at law jogged a synapse which may be the answer for me since the issue occured with a revision of a template. Even with that in mind, I have not been able to find a field code in the template than any I have used in the past 15 years.

This is a serious flaw for me as a physician since records I keep need to have the accurate time and date for legal purposes. It is a disaster. I cannot believe this problem has surfaced after working through multiple versions of word for many years.

If I cannot solve it, I will look for alternative programs for recording notes. I always print copies.. so I am protected. For this issue to be dismissed so lightly has greatly dissapointed me.

Bob
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