Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier 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 March 15, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365

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.
Display the Insert tab of the ribbon.
Click Quick Parts (in the Text group) and then click Field. 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.

There needs to be a bit of explanation as to what this last-printed date actually does. This date is saved with the document itself so that it is available when you later open the document. What this means is that when you print your document, the date is updated, but it is not saved until you save your document. Thus, if you open a document, print it, and close the document without saving, then the next time you open the document, the last-printed date won't really reflect when the document was last printed—it always reflects when it was last printed and saved.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (6060) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word 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...

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