[Andy Siegel]

I have several files where files were modified months before they were
created? How can this be? Is this a Word issue or a Windows issue?

Thank you,
A. Siegel
Dover, DE

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Andy

There are two lots of dates at File Properties. One is on the General tab,
and one lot on the Statistics tab. Neither is to be trusted.

To look at such matters, I just opened the first file I could find.
From the General tab, it was created yesterday, but last modified date on 3
December.
From the Statistics tab, it was created in April 2006.

I happen to know this file well. I remember that I did File New to create
a new file in Word in April. I'll take Word's word for it that I last
changed it on 3 December. And I remember that I copied the file from one
computer to another yesterday. So the Statistics tab is showing the date I
did File New and Word created a new document. And the General tab is
showing the date this (Windows) file was created (in/by Windows) when the
file was copied on to this machine.

It's tempting to believe that the General tab shows the date the file was
created in Windows, the Statistics tab shows the date the file was created
in Word and both show the last time a change was made to the file.

But you can't interpret the dates in this way. To demonstrate that, I did
File Save As to the document mentioned above, closed and re-opened the new
file. The created, modified and accessed dates have all been re-set. In this
new file, I cannot interpret the dates in any meaningful way at all. The
dates shown are simply the moment I did File Save As.

You also often see a file report that it was printed before it was created.
You can reproduce this in several ways One way is to create a template and
print it. Then create a new document from the template.

In short, don't use any of the information about create, modified or save
dates for anything important.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word


"Andy Siegel" wrote in message
...
I have several files where files were modified months before they were
created? How can this be? Is this a Word issue or a Windows issue?

Thank you,
A. Siegel
Dover, DE