Problem with dates when opening existing documents

[Ray]

I have several Letters in one particular folder that were created at
various times over the past three months. They were created with a .dot
template that includes my inside address and the date when created. Now
when I open those documents, instead of seeing the original creation
date, that date is replaced with the current date.

Letters created many months (or years) ago retain their original dates
when opened. Using Word 97.

Thanks,

Ray

 

[Carol]

Hello Ray,

It sounds as if your problem is that the template you are using has a
date field that automatically updates when you open the document. To
rectify that, open your template and delete the date field and insert a
"Create Date" field instead. That way you will always have the creation
date when you open it. I hope this has been helpful to you.

 

[Ray]

Hello Ray,

It sounds as if your problem is that the template you are using has a
date field that automatically updates when you open the document. To
rectify that, open your template and delete the date field and insert a
"Create Date" field instead. That way you will always have the creation
date when you open it. I hope this has been helpful to you.

Hi Carol,

Thanks for the suggestion. I think the only template I use is when I
create a New document. That template isn't used when I Open an existing
document, is it?

Again, the problem seems to be only when I open files in my Documents
2005 folder and its one subfolder. Ones in the My Documents 2004 and
Documents 2003 folders open with original dates.

Here's where it gets bizarre. I opened a letter dated May 24, 2005, with
Word 97. Instead of that date, the date that appeared on the screen is
today's, Nov 23. I saved the file it under the original file name and
then opened it using Wordpad. The date was the original May 24!

When I use Wordpad to open any of the letters in My Documents 2005, the
original creation date appears, as it should.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Ray

 

[Art McClinton]

Ray

What Carol was trying to say is that Word has the ability to insert date
and time either fixed with the current date and time or automatically
updating each time the document is opened. If you go to insert date and
time you will see that it asks for the style. in the lower corner is a
check box which defaults to checked to automatically update date and
time each time it is opened. Thus the codes in the stored documents may
either say update or keep the old time. Most likely this was done by a
template and change in template. If however could be handled by a
change in the default when the document was created. In either case
wordpad may not know how to handle this code and is ignoring the request
to automatically update the date. As you have correctly pointed out, it
will be difficult to fix the old documents, What you need to worry about
now is making certain the new documents are as you wish.

 

[Ray]

Ray

What Carol was trying to say is that Word has the ability to insert date
and time either fixed with the current date and time or automatically
updating each time the document is opened. If you go to insert date and
time you will see that it asks for the style. in the lower corner is a
check box which defaults to checked to automatically update date and
time each time it is opened. Thus the codes in the stored documents may
either say update or keep the old time. Most likely this was done by a
template and change in template. If however could be handled by a
change in the default when the document was created. In either case
wordpad may not know how to handle this code and is ignoring the request
to automatically update the date. As you have correctly pointed out, it
will be difficult to fix the old documents, What you need to worry about
now is making certain the new documents are as you wish.

Art,

Thanks. I edited my template, first removing the date and then using the
Insert command to add it back in, this time, making sure the Update
automatically box was unchecked. Then, using that template, I created a
new document, saved it, closed it, advanced the system clock to a future
date, and reopened the document. It kept the creation date.

I don't know how my original template got changed to cause the update.
Anyway, you've solved the problem.

Ray