Every document you create in Word contains information about the document or properties, such as the date the file was created, the author of the document, and the number of pages and words in the document.
When you save the document, some of these properties are updated, such as the date the document was last saved or modified. You can insert this date into your document and update it automatically. First, we’ll show you how to view document properties for Word 2010-2016, Word 2007, and Word 2003 documents. Then we’ll show you how to insert the last modified date into your Word documents.
View document properties in Word
To view the properties of an open document in Word, go to the File tab and click Info.
On the right side of the window, document properties are listed, including the last modified date, document creation date, author, and word count in the document.
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You can also display document properties in a pane at the top of the document. To do this, click the Properties button and select Show Document Panel from the drop-down menu. In newer versions of Word, the document pane has been removed, so you can only view the advanced properties.
The “Document Properties” panel opens. From this panel, you can also access a dialog box that displays all the properties saved for the document. To do this, click the Document Properties button in the upper left corner of the panel and select Additional Properties from the drop-down menu.
NOTE. You can also select Advanced Properties from the drop-down menu of the Properties button on the File tab mentioned above.
The Properties dialog box opens. You can view various tabs that display various information about the document, including creation, modification, access, and printing dates (if applicable), as well as document statistics such as the number of words and characters in the document. Click OK or Cancel to close the dialog box.
You can also change some of the properties in the Summary tab. When you are finished viewing the document properties, click OK if you made changes that you want to save, or click Cancel to close the Properties dialog box without saving your changes.
View document properties in Word 2007
To view the properties of an open document in Word 2007, click the Office Button.
Select Prepare | Properties in the “Office” menu.
The Document Properties panel appears at the top of the document. To access the Properties dialog box, click the Document Properties button, as in Word 2010, and select Advanced Properties.
The Properties dialog box is the same as in Word 2010.
View document properties in Word 2003
To view the properties of an open document in Word 2003, choose Properties from the File menu.
The Properties dialog box appears, just like in Word 2010 and Word 2007.
Enter the date last modified in the Word document
In Word, to insert the last save or modification date of the currently open document, click the Insert tab.
In the Type section of the Insert tab, click the Quick Parts button and select Field from the drop-down menu.
If you’re using Word 2003, choose Field from the Insert menu.
The Field dialog box appears. From the Categories drop-down list, select Date & Time.
Select SaveDate from the list of field names and select the desired date format from the list of date formats in the field properties field. Click OK.
The last modified date will be inserted into your document. If you place your cursor anywhere on the date, you will notice that the date has a gray background. This means that this is a field.
The field is not automatically updated when the file is saved. To manually update a field, right-click anywhere in the field and choose Update Field from the pop-up menu.
The field displays the date (and time, if applicable, depending on the selected date format) that the file was last saved.
NOTE. The Save Date (or Last Modified Date) field you inserted will automatically update every time you open the file.
You can also insert other date and time information into the document from document properties using fields such as CreateDate and EditTime. To insert other types of document properties into your document, select Document Information from the Categories drop-down list in the Field dialog box and select a property such as Author, File Name, Title, and so on. Enjoy!
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