How can I turn off automatic date update on opening documents

Anonymous
2011-05-10T12:06:19+00:00

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 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2011-05-10T12:26:24+00:00

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 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2012-08-13T19:28:21+00:00

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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  1. Anonymous
    2017-11-21T03:57:00+00:00

    All understood.  I think the real frustration is with the lack of intuitive "helps" that guide users at the appropriate time.   So while what you say is all well and good - AND correct - the real issue is that the average user doesn't understand what is going

    on when they are trying to insert a date, and Microsoft isn't helping them to understand what their options are when they are suddenly in a DATE field and find it is not working the way they want it to work.   How easy it would be, seemingly, to provide mouse-over

    suggestions and guidance, taking the mystery and frustration out of this knot.

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  2. Charles Kenyon 170.9K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2017-11-21T03:38:01+00:00

    Bingo!

    But, Microsoft being Microsoft, it can't - or won't - think like a rational human.   In most cases, it acts in a way that frustrates and confounds even the most astute users. 

    I would urge you to look at the two responses to Mikehomebfn's post.

    Microsoft thinks like a profit-motivated corporation. It tries to create a product of use, and  has done so. Some people want permanent dates. They can easily type them. Some want dates that automatically update when a document opens. I suspect that this is the majority of users.

    When different users want different things to be the default, Microsoft cannot automatically satisfy all of them. It can provide tools so that people can make their Word work the way they want. For the most part, they've done a good job of this. It depends, though, on people taking the time to learn how Word works.

    That group that wants automatic updates does not include me. I learned how to make Word automatically insert the current date when I create a document. It has been a method provided by Microsoft for more than 20 years and is not at all hard to use. I learned how to do it shortly after I started using Word in the early 90's.  Using Date Fields in Microsoft Word

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-11-21T03:26:15+00:00

    Bingo!

    But, Microsoft being Microsoft, it can't - or won't - think like a rational human.   In most cases, it acts in a way that frustrates and confounds even the most astute users.

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