Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. 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: Converting Field Results to Text.
Special fields have a great number of uses in Word. You already know that you can use fields to insert everything from the date and time to summary information for a document. There may be times, however, when you don't want to use a field for information.
As an example, let's say that you have a template that includes a field for today's date in it. When you create a document based on the template, today's date appears in the document. You make changes to the document, and then save it to disk. When you later open the document, instead of the original date, it contains the date of when you opened the file.
To get around this, you need to change the field contents to plain text before you save the file. In this instance, you would follow these steps:
That's it. The next time you open the document, the date remains unchanged. You can also use this technique with any other field to convert it to text.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (12248) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Converting Field Results to Text.
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2016-07-23 05:47:01
Dr. Bartolo
This is not the only approach. Another is to use the SaveDate field. After that when you save the document and then reopen it the date will not be automatically updated.
You can update the filed (after saving the document) if you want to do that, by selecting the field and pressing F9.
You can also lock a field by selecting it and pressing F11 (unlock it using Ctrl+F11). This would also work using just the normal date field (rather than the savedate field).
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. 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: 
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