How to Add an Automatically Updating Date and Time Stamp in Word for Mac

Longtime users may know that it’s easy to automatically add the date and time to a Word for Mac document. Once added, you can always update it manually, but there’s also a neat feature in Word that can automatically update the date and time each time you edit the document. Here’s how it works.

To get started, first open an existing document or create a new one. Then, place your cursor in the location where you want to add your automatically updated date and time stamp. In my case below, I’m clicking on a new line underneath my current text. Because yes, for some reason I need the date and time there.

Then choose the Insert menu at the top of your screen and click on Date and Time.

When the formatting window pops up, select the format you’d like to use for the date and/or time. Making this selection and clicking OK will simply add the current date and time and it will stay that way unless you manually change it. To have the date and time stamp change automatically each time the document is edited, click the box labeled Update automatically.

Click “OK,” and Word will put your formatted date and time in your document.

Now, each time you, or someone else with editing privileges, opens the document, the date and time will update automatically to their new values. That’s awesome, but there’s even more magic associated with this. If you click your date and time afterward, you’ll note that there’s a box around it.

You can click and drag the blue handle I’ve called out above to reposition your date within your text, and if you’d like, you can also right- or Control-click anywhere on the box to reveal an “Update Field” option.

Click that (or use the keyboard shortcut Option-Shift-Command-U) and your info will refresh to the current date and time without you having to close the file and reopen it. So if you need to prove that you did work today, you can definitely do that! Well, at least you can prove that you opened the document, anyway. That’s work enough, right?

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