Word document alteration

Hi all, if I change the name and content of a previously saved word document, could the original content of the document ever be recovered or could someone search the hard drive to see an alteration was made ?

 

Simple really. I asked a member of staff to send for an application form which was time sensative. She has produced a letter which, she states was, written 4 months ago. I dont think this was the case and ,as she has no administer privedges allowing her to change the clock, its all I can think she may have done.

 

you could look in her "recent documents" folder to see if the original was recently opened.

If the original document has any properties applied to it, such as original release date, AND the release date was AFTER the time when she claims to have created it, that would be possible.

Unless the file was recently opened and saved, there should be a file date on the actual file itself. If you opne an "exploring" window and set the view to DETAILS, you should see the date the file was saved. In theory, the file date should be four months old.

 

the file was indeed recently opened, I believe to recreate it. The creation date is 4 months old but 'last modified date' is a week ago. I just wondered if there was a footprint of the previous details of the document - given that the file name may have changed.

 

Last modified date is not the last time it was opened, it is the last time it was saved.
I think that is what you were looking for except that you can't know for sure what its condition was prior to the last save unless there is still a tmp file in the TEMP folder (but I doubt it).
Based on what you wrote in Post #3, I think yu need not know, since clearly the file was saved a week ago.

 

So I guess I will never know what the original document said ?

 

I have tried 'track changes' in word but is does not throw up any files to compare it with. It gives me the opportunity to look at changes but links me to a browse button for 'my documents' , after which I am asked to chose a word document to compare with ! Does that make sense ?

 

This is not going to be effective for your purpose.

You would need to browse to the network location of the original form letter and compare against that document.

It will correctly show the difference(s) between the original and the modified version, but it will not show when those changes were made unless track changes was already turned on in the original document. You already know the submitted document differs from the original, but you need to know when the changes were made.

If this person claims the document was created and saved 4 months ago, but the file save date is only a week ago, I personally think you need go no further in pursuit of this.

Script:
You: "Hey Jane, how come the file date on this document is last week if you created this 4 moths ago? "

Her: "Well, I opened it to check it. "

You: "Opening it without making any changes would not prompt to save changes. Why would you want to make changes to a document intended to show that you created it 4 months ago? "

Her: "Homina, homina, homina, homina... "

 

(You would need to browse to the network location of the original form letter and compare against that document.)

Not sure what you mean by network location. But in any event, she opened the document and centered it for printing, when asked to save changes she clicked yes. Sounds plausable enough but I'm just not sure. Can I ever be ?

 

Sounds bogus to me, but then I don't know who authored the document or why it would not already be suitable for printing in its original form.

Many corporate documents and forms are located on network drives for control and uniformity. Apparently this is not the case for your documents.

I think you've let this one get away.
I still would have asked her the last queston, "why save a document intended to show you created it 4 months ago? "

In the future, if you feel you need to gather or have accexx to revision information I suggest you:
House corporate documents nad forms in one common location
Enable revision tracking
Set verion and author properties in each document