can i tell if an excel file on my PC has been "tempered" with?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sisi
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Sisi

Dear all,

I am wondering if there is a smarter way to tell whether a
specific file(e.g. Excel, Word or email) has
been "tempered" with. The only thing I know is to check
the File Properties to see when it was last modified, but
then I realize by changing the computer clock, one can
virtully set those date fields to be any time/date you
wish.

Is there another way to tell whether the file was indeed
the one saved/modifed on the date it says Or by the person
it says was the author?

A related question goes to how to tell whether the
attachment of email has been revised and resaved into the
mail?

Thank you so much in advance!
 
I'd guess that the safest way to tell if a workbook has been changed is to do a
cell by cell comparison.

If you're just looking to see if values have changed, you may want to download
Myrna Larson and Bill Manville's addin:

http://www.cpearson.com/excel/whatsnew.htm
look for compare.xla


If the attachment is an excel workbook, I'd use the same addin.

But if the attachment is an MSWord document, then you could use MSWord's builtin
capability (Tools|compare & merge documents)

If it's some other complex file type, then maybe a binary comparison. There are
windows versions of these kinds of things (www.shareware.com) that you could
use.

In fact, you could use that binary compare against any file--but you might not
be able to translate the results into something meaningful.
 
Dear Dave:

thanks for the reply, unfortunately I do not have
the "original", the version currently saved just does not
look quite right but only by memory, any ways to tell
without the "original" version to rely on?

thanks again for your help!
Sisi
-----Original Message-----
I'd guess that the safest way to tell if a workbook has been changed is to do a
cell by cell comparison.

If you're just looking to see if values have changed, you may want to download
Myrna Larson and Bill Manville's addin:

http://www.cpearson.com/excel/whatsnew.htm
look for compare.xla


If the attachment is an excel workbook, I'd use the same addin.

But if the attachment is an MSWord document, then you could use MSWord's builtin
capability (Tools|compare & merge documents)

If it's some other complex file type, then maybe a binary comparison. There are
windows versions of these kinds of things
Click to expand...
(www.shareware.com) that you could
 
Just my guess. I don't think you can stop the really hardcore tamperers(?).

But maybe you could look under File|Properties. Maybe they'd forget to change
that back.
 
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