Undesired Date Correction

Open a letter in Word 2007 that was actually dated Sep 14, 1998, but when opened, the date changes to today's date.

How is the automatic correction of the actual date to the current date disabled when opening a Word document?

 

Bruce, after creating the letter from the template and saving it click on the date field and Ctrl+F11 to lock the date field. From MS Word Help:

"Lock or unlock a field
To lock a field and prevent changes to the current field results, click the field, and then press CTRL+F11.


To unlock a field and allow updates, click the field, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+F11. "

This is from Word 2000 so if you have a different version go to Help>Index and search for "lock" then click on the "lock a field" result in the choose a topic window.

This will not alter the template actions just the resulting letter saved from the template.

 

Clicking on the field and pressing CTRL+F11 locks in the date of today. I need to print the letter as originally dated.

How do I prevent the original date of the letter from being changed and/or how do I get the orginal date the letter was drafted to appear?

 

That makes sense for a new Word doc to be crafted, but doesn't seem logical for past docs.

I would imagine many companies & professional entities draw up letters & documentation where the original date needs to stay intact for later referral such as those related to M&As, legal work, medical records, taxes, etc. So I would be inclined to imagine there must be a somewhat simple solution to this.

 

Hi Bruce, I think the only solution to your situation is to open the existing document(s), change the date back to the original date, lock the field and re-save the document. The problem with this method is that you will have to know what the original date was before opening the document as it will update as soon as opened.

Another possible solution is to remove the date field from the template which means the date will have to be inserted each time.

 

Hi, John ~

I really don't know what the original date is, so it would be unethical to guess or make one up & enter it manually.

I tried viewing it in WordPad & NotePad to see if the original date would reveal itself but most of the text is garbled. The file property indicates a create date of August 1994, but it is imperative this and all other historical documents in the portfolio have the original date for viewing/printing when they go to review.

 

Hi Bruce, yes I agree with you it would be unethical to "guess" at a date. I am afraid you may be knackered on this one at least for the historical documents. You could try posting your problem at the OfficeExperts Forum and see if anyone over there can come up with a solution for the existing documents. I had a quick look on that forum but didn't see anything useful.

 

I tried a Word 2003 Viewer & was even able to scare up an old Word 97 Viewer, but no luck w/ either - date field remained intact.

I learned that these may be old converted Word Perfect docs, so they may explain it. I suppose we will have to rely on the property settings & use that date as the best reference.

Thanks, Gentlemen, for all your help.