Lori wants the right side of the footer for her worksheet to include the date the workbook was last saved. Every time she tries to create a formula to do this, Excel displays an error message that states the "string is too long" and that she needs to delete some characters. She's not sure she understands why this is happening or how she can get the date she wants in the footer.
There is no actual formula that can put the last-saved date in a footer. Excel has no way (unlike Word) to put this tidbit of information there. There is a way you can do it, but the solution requires the use of a macro. The reason is because you are accessing system information—information outside of Excel itself—and that information can only be retrieved using a programming language such as VBA.
One approach is to add some code that runs whenever a workbook is saved. The code would update the desired footer with the current date:
Private Sub Workbook_BeforeSave(ByVal SaveAsUI As Boolean, _ Cancel As Boolean) ActiveWorksheet.PageSetup.RightFooter = _ "Last Saved: " & Format(Date, "mmmm d, yyyy") End Sub
This macro, which should be stored in the ThisWorkbook object for the workbook you want to affect, updates the footer for the currently active worksheet. If you want to affect all the worksheets in a workbook, then a small change to the macro is in order:
Private Sub Workbook_BeforeSave(ByVal SaveAsUI As Boolean, _ Cancel As Boolean) Dim sht As Worksheet For Each sht In Sheets sht.PageSetup.RightFooter = _ "Last Saved: " & Format(Date, "mmmm d, yyyy") Next End Sub
If today is December 12, 2011, then after running the macro (which is done automatically when saving), the right footers will all be set to "Last Saved: December 12, 2011".
You can also rely upon the file save date stored in Excel's built-in properties. The way you put that date into the footer is as follows:
Sub RightFooterLastSaved() ActiveSheet.PageSetup.RightFooter = _ ActiveWorkbook.BuiltinDocumentProperties(12) End Sub
The drawback to this macro is that you need to remember to run it periodically, so it is not quite as automatic as the previous approaches. You could, however, place the single line at the heart of the macro into the Workbook_BeforePrint event handler.
There is another approach you can use. This one involves requesting from Windows the actual date and time a file was saved.
Private Sub Workbook_Open() Dim sTemp As String Dim sht As Worksheet sTemp = FileDateTime(ActiveWorkbook.FullName) sTemp = "Last Saved: " & sTemp For Each sht In Sheets sht.PageSetup.RightFooter = sTemp Next sht End Sub
This macro is designed to run whenever a workbook is first opened—it is saved as the Workbook_Open procedure of the ThisWorkbook object. The workhorse of the macro is the line that calls the FileDateTime function. This function can be used to determine the date and time any file was saved. It requires a full path name of a file, which is supplied by the FullName property of the ActiveWorkbook object. This date and time is then placed in the right footer of all the worksheets in the workbook.
Remember, as well, that the limit of what you can place into each section of the header or footer is approximately 250 characters. So if you adjust the macros to add more information to the right portion of the footer, make sure that it doesn't add up to that many characters, or you may have problems with the macro.
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (11099) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, and 2013. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Last Saved Date in a Footer.
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2017-01-10 14:31:58
Mike R
(I haven't tried yet, but...) Does this work only for the workbook for which I insert this macro? Can it be tweaked up - to perhaps work like an add-in - for EACH workbook I open then subsequently save? That would be truly helpful...
2015-12-24 09:45:56
Glenn Case
PReinie:
ThisWorkbook and the code pages for each worksheet are used for Event macros, which only run when triggered by some Excel event. In this case, the event is triggered when the workbook is opened, as indicated by the macro name, Workbook_Open(). To see a list of event triggers, open the VB editor and double-click on ThisWorkbook to open the code window. There are two fields above the code window; in the left one, select Workbook. Click on the right one, and you will get a list of event macros which are available for the Workbook. In the list you will find Before_Close and Before_Save, the events you were enquiring about. You can do the same with the code windows for each worksheet. To reveal those pages, right-click the worksheet tab and select View Code.
A google search on Event code should get you more info than you can handle on this subject.
2015-12-22 12:15:28
PReinie
Does Excel (2007) just run every macro in ThisWorkbook at some time?
How do you control causing an action at opening or saving a workbook as I'm not seeing anything showing up in my footer?
(I'm comparing with Word which can have actionable triggers at opening or closing or saving, etc.)
Do I have to put something in the footer as a placeholder for the saved date? It looks like the macro should do it without anything special other than saving the file.
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