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adjunctatlas
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« on: January 29, 2012, 01:12:23 PM » |
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A student claims he submitted a paper, but I don't think he did, so I'm going to ask him to send me his paper by e-mail so that I can open it and check to see when it was last modified, but I don't remember how to do that on the Mac; how do I? And even if he did his on a PC, so long as he used MSW, I should be able to access its history, shouldn't I?
Thanks!
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peppergal
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« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2012, 01:20:43 PM » |
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In the Finder, you can see when a file was created, modified, and last opened. In the Finder, go to "View" and then "View Options".
This is on OS 10.6.8. I don't know if the more recent OS has changed this.
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marigolds
looks far too young to be a
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 7,356
i had fun once and it was awful
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« Reply #2 on: January 29, 2012, 01:57:03 PM » |
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In the Finder, you can see when a file was created, modified, and last opened. In the Finder, go to "View" and then "View Options".
This is on OS 10.6.8. I don't know if the more recent OS has changed this.
Under Lion, when you have the document highlighted in the Finder (as if you were going to do a Quick Look) the information is displayed in the far right-hand pane of the finder. But if it wasn't created on your Mac, I'm not sure if that will work. You can always ctrl-click on the filename and choose "Get Info" from the dropdown. |
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"You and your mom are hillbillies. This is a house of learned doctors."
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adjunctatlas
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« Reply #3 on: January 29, 2012, 09:03:05 PM » |
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I forgot all about the Finder--I was thinking of some command that required you to open the document itself. I've got one document that I didn't create, and the Finder displays its information, and clicking on "More Info" gets it all. Thanks for the reminder!
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bookishone
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« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2012, 09:46:28 PM » |
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Are you thinking of "Properties"? Open Word, then go into the, um, apple menu? (I don't have Word open right now) and choose Properties. That tells you who originated the file (or whose computer originated it -- so Tom can still claim that he didn't plagiarize the paper from Sally, he just used Sally's computer because his was broken).
Does the Finder trick tell you when the document was originally created, or just when it showed up in your Mail inbox on your computer?
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My tag line is false.
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kromlooper
New member
Posts: 40
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« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2012, 03:29:47 AM » |
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It won't work. Filesystem metadata is not preserved by e-mail!
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egilson
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« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2012, 08:00:20 AM » |
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It won't work. Filesystem metadata is not preserved by e-mail!
It's not preserved in the Finder (which says when the file was copied to your system), but if you go to File > Properties for that document in Word and click the Statistics tab, it does show the date and time the document was created. I just confirmed this with a downloaded document, which shows as being created five months before I downloaded it. |
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« Last Edit: March 24, 2012, 08:02:05 AM by egilson »
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To anyone who is not a blockhead, all the sciences are interesting. - Marc Bloch
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temporaryname
Junior faculty,
Senior member
Posts: 917
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« Reply #7 on: March 28, 2012, 02:34:32 PM » |
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It's not preserved in the Finder (which says when the file was copied to your system), but if you go to File > Properties for that document in Word and click the Statistics tab, it does show the date and time the document was created. I just confirmed this with a downloaded document, which shows as being created five months before I downloaded it.
This isn't foolproof, though—if someone used an old document as a starting template for a paper (or creates a new document and pastes text from their working document into it), both of which I've done at various times for various reasons in my own work, you'll end up with an inaccurate picture of the age of the text you're looking at. |
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thisisme
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« Reply #8 on: March 30, 2012, 02:15:56 PM » |
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This isn't foolproof, though—if someone used an old document as a starting template for a paper (or creates a new document and pastes text from their working document into it), both of which I've done at various times for various reasons in my own work, you'll end up with an inaccurate picture of the age of the text you're looking at.
Sure. But how reliable is the "last modified" date? How safe is the information in file properties? I mean, I don't know how to do it but I am pretty sure there are ways to change it. - Probably by setting the computer's time(?), interthreadduality, but maybe there are more convenient ways? I mean if the student knows he is late ... |
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marigolds
looks far too young to be a
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 7,356
i had fun once and it was awful
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« Reply #9 on: March 30, 2012, 04:30:45 PM » |
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You guys, 90% of students can't work anything more complicated than Facebook.
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"You and your mom are hillbillies. This is a house of learned doctors."
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octoprof
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« Reply #10 on: March 30, 2012, 06:42:55 PM » |
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You guys, 90% of students can't work anything more complicated than Facebook.
Truth. Xbox360? No problem! Facebook? No problem! Texting? No problem! Word? Excel? Access? You'll be lucky. |
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Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles; it will make clear and simple many things... Mark Twain
It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. Professor Dumbledore
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