Discussion on:

Automating dates and times in a Word document

It has always amazed me that MS did not incorporate the Ecxel and Access shortcuts of Ctrl ; and Ctrl: for current date and time respectively. I have written macros with those shortcuts for my version of Word.

used extremely sparingly, especially in a work situation - such fields should ALWAYS be entered manually, even if the manual entry is just a case of clicking on the toolbar icon for 'Insert date' that you've added to your toolbar.

because if you have it set to automatically insert the date, it will insert the date current at the time the document is opened, and if you are opening this to print a copy for legal reasons, the date will no longer correspond to the date of the previous printed copy. I've seen a court case lost because one side used the automatic insert date option, and they could NOT find any electronic copies that printed out with the correct original date without having to manipulate the file prior to printing, and thus the new print was not accepted by the court as an acceptable copy.

If you add the Insert date icon to the toolbar and click on when you need to, it will just add the date current at the time of you clicking on the icon to the document, and that will then stay the same, until such time as you highlight that area and click on the icon again. A much preferable way of doing this.