Reliability of extra file details...

[WhiteNascent]

Hello,

I'm a teaching assistant for a university class and I had a question
regarding the reliability of the content created date listed in a files
properties. An assignment that students were working on for the majority of
the semester contains the detail "content created" that lists a student as
having started the assignment a day before. Is there a situation that would
cause the content created date to be reverted to the date that a recent
modification was done?

For example the content created lists
11/25/08 10am
Date last saved
11/25/09 4pm

Are those dates reliable? Much thanks for any help.

 

[Luc]

WhiteNascent,
If you are working on the original file it is reliable. But what prevents a
student to start a new presentation, then insert the slides from the original
presentation (one of a fellow student) into the new one and save the lot as
his own work. In that case you start from scratch and both dates could be
very close.
But the revision number and total time of revision as indicated on the
statistics tab of the properties dialogue would give an indication on how
much work there has been done on the file.
Just my two cents.
Luc Sanders
MVP - PowerPoint

 

[Chirag]

On the revision number and total time: Folks can take an existing
presentation, delete all slides and insert new ones. It will appear that the
presentation has been revised quite a few times and a lot of time has been
spent on making those revisions.

- Chirag

PowerShow - View multiple PowerPoint slide shows simultaneously
http://officeone.mvps.org/powershow/powershow.html

 

[Austin Myers]

In a word, no. There are all sorts of ways that this can be altered.



Austin Myers
AT&W Technologies

Creators of PowerPoint add-ins

 

[WhiteNascent]

Thanks guys, it sounds like different working styles and variations mean I
should not use it as a method of judging time. Thanks!