Microsoft Word, identifying printed documents

[johnthehappyguy]

Hi,
Once again i am having problems dealing with hundreds of bits of paper.

Not so much me dealing with them ( cos I always have my records filed and updated - well sometimes) but others using them.

Problem,
I issue printed documents in word (2002), sometimes with lots of pages, distributed to several people. they do not know if they are using the up to date version of the document. The problem becomes even more complex, when others update the document and issue it as well.

Is it possible to insert a footer which will automatically update itself whenever a new version of the document is saved, giving the new file path, time and date saved ?

Or is there something better to keep track of who has updated what?

Thanks very much,
John:nice:

[Lee Bartholomew]

You could easily do it with Macros. Of course this would mean a little bit of VBA programming knowledge, which might sound like alot of agro just to do update one document, but once you have learnt VBA (which is pretty simple) it will come in very usefull if you are doing alot of OFFICE work.

A good place to start learning will be here -> http://wordprocessing.about.com/od/workingwithmacro1/l/blmacrointro.htm

Someone might be able to give you a specific bit of code to do what you need, but it is worth learning yourself :nice:

[Gav]

You should be able to do it with autotext.
Insert > Autotext > Autotext.
Then choose Filename and path, time and date. You could even add last saved by, for further tracking.

You may find that as it's in a footer it doesn't update automatically, if you need a macro to do it, let me know and I'll send you the code and instructions.

[Gav]

If it's any use to you, you'll find a couple of demonstration videos of how to do it on my website:


From the start, including entering the fields in the footer (http://www.ihelp.org.uk/wdfields.html)
Just the macro to update the fields every time the document is closed (http://www.ihelp.org.uk/WordFieldUpdate.html)

I'm just starting to upload a load of resources and help guides (mostly based on previous, technical-writing based projects) to my website, so any constructive criticism would be gratefully received.

[Magic Hans]

Errrm

Insert -> Field...

Choices are SaveDate [and SavedBy if required]
or RevNum, which, apparently, increments each time a document is saved.

I believe these field should automatically update ... no programming (or macros) required.

Try it out on a test document ... see what happens, and what you like!!