Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Inserting the Document Creation Date.

Inserting the Document Creation Date

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 9, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Word keeps track of a good deal of information about your document, and then makes that information available to you. One of the pieces of information tracked is the document creation date. This is the date when the file was first created (opened as a new file) or the last time you chose Save As and saved the file under a new name. Word allows you to insert this date into your document by following these steps:

Position the insertion point where you want the creation date to appear.
Choose Field from the Insert menu. Word displays the Field dialog box.
From the categories of fields, choose Date and Time. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Field dialog box.

Select CreateDate from the Field Names list.
Select a date format by clicking on the Options button, if desired. (In Word 2002, simply select your options from those displayed in the dialog box.)
Click on OK.

This type of date field is a big help when you are using dates with memos, letters, and reports. The date stays the same as when you first created the file, unless (again) you save the file under a new name, which changes the file creation date.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (962) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Inserting the Document Creation Date.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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What is 6 + 5?

2023-03-13 10:00:25

Chris

Seems like this no longer works. I can create the field as described, but even when you create a copy, or download a new template... the date remains the same.

If you right click on the field and click 'update field' it will update to the correct date 'Create Date', but this isn't the sort of thing we expect users to do, so it's not really suitable for our purposes.

Thanks for posting though, I was glad to have something to experiment with!

2019-05-30 22:21:43

Harold Berman

G'day Allen,

Is it possible to make a button for this operation "inserting the document creation date" and put it on the Quick Access Toolbar.

I look forward everyday to receiving your daily nuggets for Excel and Word, as I am a volunteer tutor at an organisation that teaches Seniors to use computers and find some of the tips very helpful.

Kind regards

Harold Berman
Sydney Australia

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