Date Modifed Changes after close withoout save

[Jon A]

When I open a spreadsheet which I did not create, then
close without saving, the date modified changes although
no modifications have occured. If I do the same with a
spreadsheet which I created the date modified does not
alter. This means that it is not possible to scan
through spreadsheets without changing the date, and
consequently losing the ability to indentify the relative
age of spreadsheets.

This appears to be a problem with Excel 2002 and later as
colleagues have a similar problem.

Any suggestions?

Jon A

 

[Jim May]

By saying "the date modified" are you speaking of the date as taken from
the actual filename.xls's properties or do you have a cell in you
worksheet(s) that has
a formula or function that returns the date? If so what is the function in
the cell(s)?

 

[Jon A]

The "date modified" is as reported by Windows Explorer
after closing the file, which is on a network server.

Jon A

 

[Jim May]

Hi Jon A:
I found this on Google

Hello,

I am using Excel 2000 on Windows 98.
After I open an Excel file, and then close it without any
editing or modification, the "modified" column in Windows
Explorer has been updated for the file I just opened.
(i.e., Time and Date In the modified column in Windows
explorer has been changed to the time when I open the file).
Again, I didn't edit or modify the file, but just simply
opened and looked.

How can I correct this problem?

Thanks for your help in advance.

I'm afraid that is the way Explorer works.

When opening the file, there was a recalculation and there are also possibly
other things recorded in the file that are not immediately apparent.

Regards

--
Norman Harker
Sydney, Australia.

*** Norman knows his stuff**
HTH
Jim May

 

[Dave Peterson]

The date changes when excel opens the file--but if you close without saving, it
should revert to the original date/time.

The only time I've seen this was with a network file (on a remote share). After
a few weeks, the problem disappeared. I assumed (maybe incorrectly--but I
didn't change anything), that it was a network problem and one of the people in
IT changed, er, fixed something so that it worked correctly.

If your file is on a network share, do you have the same problem with a file on
the local harddrive? How about if you're not connected to the network?

 

[Guest]

I found this under Microsoft Knowledge Base Article -
826741 "This problem occurs because when you open an
Excel workbook, Excel writes the name of the current user
to the header of the file. This is necessary so that
other users receive the "file in use" notification. The
operating system then updates the last modified date.
Excel stores the original Modified date and time in
memory so that it can restore the original timestamp if
you close the workbook without saving changes."

It seems to me that under Windows XP this doesn't happen
correctly - at least not on my company network.
Unfortunately we don't have IT sepecialists.

Jon A

 

[Dave Peterson]

I don't have a suggestion about fixing the problem--it was a long time ago when
the problem occurred and was fixed.

Maybe you could open the file readonly???