How to know how long you have been working on a Microsoft Word document. One thing many writers want to know is how much time they have spent writing. If you use Microsoft Word, you are in luck, as it is easy to find out.
When you start working on a new document, Word starts a timer. When you save the file, Word saves the time spent working on the document metadata. Whenever you work on the file and then save it again, Word adds the new time to whatever is already in the metadata.
This provides a running total of the time it took to edit the document. You can easily find the time it took to edit a document, as well as information such as when the document was last edited or printed, from Word or directly in Windows File Explorer.
This information is quite useful if you like to keep track of how long you have worked on a document. It becomes even more practical if you need to report such time to a client or employer.
There is one important thing to keep in mind when viewing this information, though. Word doesn't really count the time a document is written, it counts from when you open it to when you close it.
How to know how long you have been working on a Microsoft Word document
If you've already opened the document in Word, go to the “File” menu.
On the sidebar that opens, click the "Info" command (it's probably already selected by default when you open the "File" menu.
Above right, the "Info" panel displays various information about your document. Under the "Properties" section, you will see the "Total editing time" value. And note that Word always shows the time in minutes - you won't see hours or seconds.
Using the file explorer on Windows
You don't even need to open a Word document to find this information. Instead, you can open the document properties window directly from File Explorer.
To do this, right-click the file and then select the command "Property" from the context menu.
In the properties window, switch to the tab "Details", scroll down a bit and you will see the entry "Total modification time".
Conclusions
Just remember that it's not very accurate as Word counts the time the document is open and not the time you are actually writing on the document itself.
