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General discussion

Word and archive bit

Oct 17, 2004 4:41AM PDT

If I open a .doc file with File>Open (or by clicking on it in Explorer) Word 97 sets the archive bit, while keeping the date created and modified unchanged.
That's annoying for a backup scheme that's based on using the archive bit, which is what it is intended for.
In batch (like in xcopy "My Documents\*.*" e:\bkup_doc /m /s) it's no real problem. Doing it manually with Explorer is annoying, because it asks permission to overwrite the file, while there is no need to copy it to begin with.

Does anyone know if there is a way to leave the archive bit off if the file isn't saved, but only opened?

Kees

Discussion is locked

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Re: Word and archive bit
Oct 17, 2004 7:38AM PDT

Yes. I think Excel and PowerPoint all did this one way or the other. Unless you open it read-only, you have to ask Microsoft for a fix.... (unlikely!)

Have you tried OpenOffice to see what it does?

Bob

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Last accessed feature...
Oct 17, 2004 7:40AM PDT

I think part of this was the not ready for primetime item they were shooting for and that was the "last accessed" date/time. They just couldn't nail it into place it seems.

bob