Document modified indicator

[DTracy]

Is there such a feature in Word 2003 that will show if a document has been modified?

I am aware of the undo arrow circle being disabled if the document has not been modified and enabled when modified, however if the document was modified and saved the undo cache is not cleared and the arrow circle stays enabled.

What I'm looking for is a feature like Wordperfect has where the word Unmodified is displayed on the title bar and is removed as soon as the document is changed. When saved the Unmodified tag is redisplayed.

Thanks in advance,
David.

 

[TonyJollans]

There is nothing in the UI, but VBA has the Document.Saved property that you can use.

Enjoy,
Tony

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[BlueHorizon]

Hi
You can insert a SaveDate field in the footer that will change each time the document is saved. Normally, users don't save a document unless prompted and are only prompted if changes have been made.

HTH,

Best,
Blue Horizon

 

[DTracy]

My intentions were to be able to walk up behind my people and be able to tell at a glance if their document was saved or not. Keep me from having to remind them to save their work or risk the consequences.

Thanks to all,

David.

 

[macropod]

Hi David,

If someone edits a document, they'll get prompted to save when exiting, if they haven't already done so. Is that not enough?

Cheers
Paul Edstein
[MS MVP - Word]

 

[DTracy]

Hi Paul,

No, I know about the prompt to save for the user on exit. As I said, my intention as an observer was to be able to look over the user's shoulder and see if the document had been saved or not. Just like WordPerfect.

Thanks,
David.

 

[mintjulep]

Why not just set Tools | Options | Save | Save AutoRecover info every: to some reasonably short time?

 

[DTracy]

mintjulep,

I have, but under certain conditions, a failure will cause Word to remove the backup file before the user has a chance to recover it.

TonyJollans and BlueHorizon had given me the idea of a macro that would display the last save date/time on the Word title bar similar to WordPerfect. I am a C programmer not a VB programmer and if I understand them correctly the macros are written in VB. In any event, I could install the macro on the user workstations so that they would be active at all times, and user friendly.

Suggestions?

Thanks ever so much,
David.

 

[Gavona]

Sounds inefficient for a person to have to remind the user to save since VBA could do that. You could adapt the last post in the following thread. At an interval you define the code can check the Document Saved property. If document is not saved the user could be alerted.
Taking it a step further, you could also use events to store the date/time the file was last saved. Ontime could then trigger a routine that only runs if the Document has not been saved and at least x minutes has passed since last saved.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/...de-every-set-number-of-seconds-i-e-120-second

Regards,

Gavin

 

[mintjulep]

but under certain conditions, a failure will cause Word to remove the backup file before the user has a chance to recover it.

And a crash could happen while you are on the phone, or in the rest room etc. and unable to be looking over a user's shoulder to remind him to save.

I'd suggest that what you are doing provides only a miniscule additional degree of protection above and beyond that which AutoSave provides.

If the input of your users' is really so critical that you can't risk any loss at all then you should probably be looking at a more robust solution.

 

[TonyJollans]

but under certain conditions, a failure will cause Word to remove the backup file before the user has a chance to recover it.

In normal circumstances, users shouldn't be getting abends. If they are, then you should investigate - and fix - the underlying problem. Also, resiliency is much improved in newer versions of Word, so perhaps an upgrade would help.

Enjoy,
Tony

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[macropod]

under certain conditions, a failure will cause Word to remove the backup file before the user has a chance to recover it.

That would be an extremely unlikely scenario. More likely is the user dumbly choosing to not allow Word to recover tor ignoring the auto-recovered file's existence when Word is restarted. Since you can set the auto-recover save frequency to as often as one minute, that should be ample protection.

Still, if you want to force a save every 'n' keystrokes or the like, you might be able to do something with the 'WindowSelectionChange' event. See:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa140279(office.10).aspx

Cheers
Paul Edstein
[MS MVP - Word]