Is it possible to see who last opened a Word Document?

  • Thread starter Thread starter daniel.dryhurst
  • Start date Start date
D

daniel.dryhurst

Hi

Just curious, I remember something a while ago (might have been an
'Urban Legend' type of thing), where if you opened a word document in
notepad or wordpad it would, at the end log the IP or username of the
person who last opened the file.

I don't expect this to be true but was wondering if there is any way to
view this information? We need to check who has been accessing a
document lately and we're already past the 'turn track chages on'.

Thanks
 
I can't answer your question but I can make a suggestion. It sounds as tho
you have a security problem. Why not move that document into a protected
folder?
 
It isn't an urban legend. Versions before Word 2003 stored the names of up
to 10 authors. See http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=290945#E0LD0ACAAA.

As for how to view them, right-click the file, choose Open With > Notepad,
and scroll down toward the end of the document. Wordpad won't do, because it
interprets the Word information in the file the same way that Word does.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
This sounds interesting. How do you create a protected folder?
--


JD


JoAnn Paules said:
I can't answer your question but I can make a suggestion. It sounds as tho
you have a security problem. Why not move that document into a protected
folder?

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]



Hi

Just curious, I remember something a while ago (might have been an
'Urban Legend' type of thing), where if you opened a word document in
notepad or wordpad it would, at the end log the IP or username of the
person who last opened the file.

I don't expect this to be true but was wondering if there is any way to
view this information? We need to check who has been accessing a
document lately and we're already past the 'turn track chages on'.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Can you see this information if you use "Recover Text from Any File"?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
If this is on a network, I would recommend talking to your MIS department.
If not, you could compress the folder and password protect it. If you access
that folder often you may get tired of that real quick because you have to
remember to compress again it after you are finished with it. There's also
software available that will do this. I'm sure that others will be able to
give you additional information. I know enough about this to be dangerous.

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]



Jackie D said:
This sounds interesting. How do you create a protected folder?
--


JD


JoAnn Paules said:
I can't answer your question but I can make a suggestion. It sounds as
tho
you have a security problem. Why not move that document into a protected
folder?

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]



Hi

Just curious, I remember something a while ago (might have been an
'Urban Legend' type of thing), where if you opened a word document in
notepad or wordpad it would, at the end log the IP or username of the
person who last opened the file.

I don't expect this to be true but was wondering if there is any way to
view this information? We need to check who has been accessing a
document lately and we're already past the 'turn track chages on'.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
In the few documents I have that were edited by more than one person, yes.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
That's what I suspected. This is no longer true in Word 2003?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
The KB article I cited includes this in the description of how to get
rid of the names:

"Note This information is not stored by Word 2003."
 
Thanks for the responses, I've taken them all onboard.

Just for the record, this is a publicly accessible piece of work that
someone is accusing another person of plagiarizing. Thsi other person
has denied even seeing the document so we just needed a way to see
which people had opened it beforehand.

Again, many thanks.
 
Hi Daniel

Just for the record, this is a publicly accessible piece of work that
someone is accusing another person of plagiarizing. Thsi other person
has denied even seeing the document so we just needed a way to see
which people had opened it beforehand.
Click to expand...

Hmm, if the first piece is really "publicly accessible", then it
wouldn't matter whether the other person has read this or not, would it?

I'd wager that "First come, first serve" is true (in academics, at
least) ...

..2 cents
Robert
 
Thanks for the responses, I've taken them all onboard.

Just for the record, this is a publicly accessible piece of work that
someone is accusing another person of plagiarizing. Thsi other person
has denied even seeing the document so we just needed a way to see
which people had opened it beforehand.

Again, many thanks.
Click to expand...

If the person only opened and read the document but didn't change
anything or save it, their name won't appear in the file. Absence of
proof is not proof of absence.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.
 
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