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 Date Your Document Was Last Printed.

Inserting the Date Your Document Was Last Printed

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 8, 2022)

One of the pieces of information that Word maintains about documents is when they were last printed. Every time you print your document, this piece of information is updated. There may be times when you want to display this "last printed" date in your document. To do this, follow these steps:

Position the insertion point where you want the date to appear.
Choose Field from the Insert menu. Word displays the Field dialog box.
Choose Date and Time from the Categories list. Word updates the choices in the Field Names list. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Field dialog box.

Select PrintDate from the field list at the right side of the dialog box.
Click on Options or Field Codes to select a date format, if desired.
Click on OK to insert the field.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1841) 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 Date Your Document Was Last Printed.

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...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Setting Subscript Depth in the Equation Editor

You can specify exactly where subscripts appear in your equations.

Discover More

Setting Embellishment Spacing in the Equation Editor

The equation editor is a great tool for adding mathematical equations into your document. The placement of many elements ...

Discover More

Sheets for Days

Need a quick way to have a worksheet for each day in a month? Here's a macro that makes the worksheet creation a snap.

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2019. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2019 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Using Mandatory Form Fields

When using form fields to gather information from users of your documents, you may want to make sure that some of the ...

Discover More

Special Characters in Fields

If you try to add a quote mark or a backslash as part of a field parameter or switch, you may be surprised at what you ...

Discover More

Converting Field Results to Text

Fields are meant to be dynamic, providing a result based on conditions at the time they are updated. You may want to ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 7 - 4?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.