Foo - Word document....Can I tell how many times it's been viewed?

This goofball here at work wants to be able to see how many times a certain Word document out on the network is being opened/viewed. Does anyone know if Word documents keep any sort of log of how many times the file is opened/accessed?? What a PITA. :(

Are you the tech guy? If so.............shouldn't you know. Just kidding. I have no idea.

nope

This goofball here at work wants to be able to see how many times a certain Word document out on the network is being opened/viewed. Does anyone know if Word documents keep any sort of log of how many times the file is opened/accessed?? What a PITA. :(
As far as I know, you'd have to actively install a counter algorithm in the filepath code to access that information. I don't remember any macro built into the base program for Word for that purpose. Another way might be to PW protect the doc and count the PW entries. Is it on the Internet or is it on a company Intranet?

As far as I know, you'd have to actively install a counter algorithm in the filepath code to access that information. I don't remember any macro built into the base program for Word for that purpose. Another way might be to PW protect the doc and count the PW entries. Is it on the Internet or is it on a company Intranet?

I was just going to say, if it is on an intranet there is likely a stats page somewhere to tell you. If it is on a standard share, unless something has been setup to explicitly count for you, I doubt you will find the info.

nope, winblows doesnt log much unless an app is installed to do it, all your gonna see is last access or modification time, creation time, and possibly when it was put on the system originally

Thanks for the replies. It's a document(not an html page) on our intranet. Pretty much confirmed what I have been trying to tell them but I wanted to see if you all were thinking the same thing I was. I just told them it can't be done. Don't care if it is somehow remotely possible..... I got enough things to worry about. This is VERY low on my priority list.

nope, winblows doesnt log much unless an app is installed to do it, all your gonna see is last access or modification time, creation time, and possibly when it was put on the system originally
Actually that's incorrect.
Windows is capable of logging file access. It's a GPO setting.
However using a File access setting to monitor file viewing time is not the most accurate or intuitive thing. One could use a Macro like Tom suggested, however in today's world that may or may not cause more problems then it's worth depending upon overall office environment settings.

Thanks for the replies. It's a document(not an html page) on our intranet. Pretty much confirmed what I have been trying to tell them but I wanted to see if you all were thinking the same thing I was. I just told them it can't be done. Don't care if it is somehow remotely possible..... I got enough things to worry about. This is VERY low on my priority list.

Your intranet, could be capable of counting a word document and how many times it is opened. I don't think any of us assumed is was html.

Sharepoint services for example, if you were inclined, could log how many times the file has been accessed

... I don't think any of us assumed is was html.....
Yeah sorry 'bout that.... I was just "clarifying" that it was only a document. I'm sorta bad about doing that. Guess I deal with too many "dummies" on a daily basis. Not used to people actually understanding what I am saying. :D :lol:



...Sharepoint services for example, if you were inclined, could log how many times the file has been accessed
We have all our intranet crap on an old NT server. It's really nothing fancy. Looked at sharepoint services website and looks like that is a pretty new product. Doubt it would run very good on NT4.

sounds like a stupid and pointless request.

this is why i moved away from development in my company. i was going down a route of maintaining\enhancing XSLT scripts for some conversion work. the users would request things that often made no sense, conflicted with something earlier they requested, or they didn't know what they wanted. and then, of course, they'd get frustrated when it wasn't working properly.

it drove me crazy, so when a different position opened up, i jumped at it.

Yeah sorry 'bout that.... I was just "clarifying" that it was only a document. I'm sorta bad about doing that. Guess I deal with too many "dummies" on a daily basis. Not used to people actually understanding what I am saying. :D :lol:


Understand. :D



We have all our intranet crap on an old NT server. It's really nothing fancy. Looked at sharepoint services website and looks like that is a pretty new product. Doubt it would run very good on NT4.

No sharepoint is a 2003 beast. Very viable intranet solution that is free with server 2003. If you have a large intranet you might be able to justify a purchase of a spanking new server :D

sounds like a stupid and pointless request. ...........

ABSOFRIGGINLUTELY! My sentiment exactly! :crash:





......... the users would request things that often made no sense, conflicted with something earlier they requested, or they didn't know what they wanted. and then, of course, they'd get frustrated when it wasn't working properly...........

Sounds pretty much like standard procedure around here. :lol:

sounds like a stupid and pointless request.

this is why i moved away from development in my company. i was going down a route of maintaining\enhancing XSLT scripts for some conversion work. the users would request things that often made no sense, conflicted with something earlier they requested, or they didn't know what they wanted. and then, of course, they'd get frustrated when it wasn't working properly.

it drove me crazy, so when a different position opened up, i jumped at it.

Ever see the nick burns skit...where he would walk up to the computer...
"MOVE"

haha Just in case no one has seen them

http://nopers.com/video/118/nick_burns_computer_guy_jackie_chan
http://www.nopers.com/video/117/nick_burns_computer_guy_anniston
http://www.nopers.com/video/78/pc_guy

Thanks for the replies. It's a document(not an html page) on our intranet. Pretty much confirmed what I have been trying to tell them but I wanted to see if you all were thinking the same thing I was. I just told them it can't be done. Don't care if it is somehow remotely possible..... I got enough things to worry about. This is VERY low on my priority list.

If it's on your intranet, that means there is a link to the document on an intranet page...so you should be able to track accesses to that file via your intranet web server logs. If there is no intranet page link, it's not on your intranet, it's merely on the network.

If it's on your intranet, that means there is a link to the document on an intranet page...so you should be able to track accesses to that file via your intranet web server logs. If there is no intranet page link, it's not on your intranet, it's merely on the network.

Yes, there is a link from the main "index" page, but it just points directly to a single word document. I was looking at that earlier but could not come up with anything. Any idea exactly where to look for a log with such info, and what the name of it might be?

Yes, there is a link from the main "index" page, but it just points directly to a single word document. I was looking at that earlier but could not come up with anything. Any idea exactly where to look for a log with such info, and what the name of it might be?

If you have an index page, you have a web server...most likely IIS if your 'intranet' is NT based. I'm sure the logs suck...so install a web log analyzer to make it easier. Here's a decent cheapie: http://www.exacttrend.com/WebLogExplorer/

Understand. :D



No sharepoint is a 2003 beast. Very viable intranet solution that is free with server 2003. If you have a large intranet you might be able to justify a purchase of a spanking new server :D
Oooh Sharepoint. Yeah - the day I figure out exactly what Sharepoint is I'll let everybody know :p

Yes, there is a link from the main "index" page, but it just points directly to a single word document. I was looking at that earlier but could not come up with anything. Any idea exactly where to look for a log with such info, and what the name of it might be?
Heh - well if the document is served up via a web page - you could easily create a counter using asp 3.0 (vbscript) or asp.net

Oooh Sharepoint. Yeah - the day I figure out exactly what Sharepoint is I'll let everybody know :p

ummm...ahhh...do you want me to explain. I have used the last two versions and the portal version. Its not quite rocket science.

sharepoint isn't too bad at all. we use it for basic things like posting documents, annoucements, contact lists, links, etc. it's very useful.

our files were getting too disorganized across several servers, finding stuff was problematic. sharepoint has helped us clean up a lot.

sharepoint isn't too bad at all. we use it for basic things like posting documents, annoucements, contact lists, links, etc. it's very useful.

our files were getting too disorganized across several servers, finding stuff was problematic. sharepoint has helped us clean up a lot.

Wait till you see the integration between office 2007 and sharepoint 3. It makes calloboration look even more seemless.

Wait till you see the integration between office 2007 and sharepoint 3. It makes calloboration look even more seemless.

If you have an MS infrastucture, Sharepoint is da shizz...but that tight integration also pretty much locks you into MS products for the desktop, servers, browser and office suite. That's why I had to draft a 5 year plan to move away from MS at my last job...that's how long it's gonna to break the ties that bind. :eek:

I wonder if File > Properties > Statistics does it for you.