Stopping word from changing the document date

The daughter has typed a number of letters and reports for me over the last
five months.When I bring them up Word automatically changes the date for
example from March to May 22, 2004. I need to make copies of some of these
reports with the original date showing. I am not familiar with Word, Can
someone tell me step by step how to do this retaining the original typing
date that was on the documents?.
Thanks

Sounds like the daughter used the Alt+Shift+D keyboard shortcut to
insert a date field into the document, instead of typing the date
manually. As you've discovered, the date field automatically updates to
the current date when you open the file... that is how the date field is
designed to work.

Open the Word file, click on File | Properties | Statistics. You will
see Created (date document was started, not necessarily same as date
finished), Modified (date document was last saved), and Printed (date
document was last printed). For me, the best approximation of the
"original date" is usually the date Modified or Printed, but YMMV... if
all three dates are the same, then that is probably the "original date";
if the dates are different, you're going to have to decide which date is
most likely to be correct. Close the Properties dialog box, delete the
date field from the Word file, and manually type the date you chose in
its place.


Mike wrote:

The daughter has typed a number of letters and reports for me over the last
five months.When I bring them up Word automatically changes the date for
example from March to May 22, 2004. I need to make copies of some of these
reports with the original date showing. I am not familiar with Word, Can
someone tell me step by step how to do this retaining the original typing
date that was on the documents?.
Thanks

It's much easier to open the date field code (right-click it and
select Toggle Field Code) and change the word DATE to CREATEDATE.
Press F9 to update the field, and you're all set.

See http://word.mvps.org/faqs/tblsfldsfms/DateFields.htm for more
info.

garfield-n-odie wrote:

Sounds like the daughter used the Alt+Shift+D keyboard shortcut to
insert a date field into the document, instead of typing the date
manually. As you've discovered, the date field automatically updates to
the current date when you open the file... that is how the date field is
designed to work.

Open the Word file, click on File | Properties | Statistics. You will
see Created (date document was started, not necessarily same as date
finished), Modified (date document was last saved), and Printed (date
document was last printed). For me, the best approximation of the
"original date" is usually the date Modified or Printed, but YMMV... if
all three dates are the same, then that is probably the "original date";
if the dates are different, you're going to have to decide which date is
most likely to be correct. Close the Properties dialog box, delete the
date field from the Word file, and manually type the date you chose in
its place.


Mike wrote:

The daughter has typed a number of letters and reports for me over the last
five months.When I bring them up Word automatically changes the date for
example from March to May 22, 2004. I need to make copies of some of these
reports with the original date showing. I am not familiar with Word, Can
someone tell me step by step how to do this retaining the original typing
date that was on the documents?.
Thanks




--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word