Date stamp sleuthing

[J]

My boss suspects that a colleague "back dated" a Word document by
changing the system date on his computer, created the document to give
it an older date stamp (HR stuff....don't ask!). Is there any way to
deduce if the document was actually created at a later date?
TIA

 

[Summer]

You can do it with a MACRO also.

One has ALWAYS been able to do this.

 

[J]

You can do it with a MACRO also.

One has ALWAYS been able to do this.






- Show quoted text -

Thanks for the reply. Can you be more specific?

 

[Summer]

It would be done with a macro - WOPR toolbar has macro that you can change
the date stamp of Word docs up to Word 2003.

If the person is not very Computer savvy they really wouldn't do it or know
how to do it!

I've never seen it done in professional circles although I do it on my
templates so they have a base date when they go online.

It really is not something someone WOULD do but COULD do in my opinion
anyway.

Enjoy the "sleuth" mission.

You can do it with a MACRO also.

One has ALWAYS been able to do this.






- Show quoted text -

Thanks for the reply. Can you be more specific?

 

[Graham Mayor]

I think the real issue here is whether the dates logged in relation to a
document are a true reflection of the dates the document was created, and
the answer to that is that they cannot be replied upon as they are easy to
change (and you don't even need to change the system date of the PC to do
that).

However if the OP has not been too clever, you could examine the file with
the Script Editor SHIFT+ALT+F11 in Word 2003 (you will probably get a prompt
to install the script editor if it has not been used before (which is a good
sign if done on the PC where the file is believed to have been changed) and
if the created date is after the last saved date it would tend to look a bit
suspicious. You would still not get this past a Court as evidence, but it is
a step in the right direction.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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