Frequently Asked Questions about Doc Dates

The sent date is the timestamp when a user clicks the Send button of the email program.

The delivery date is generally the date when the SMTP server has delivered the email to the addressed email account.

The delivery date for Microsoft Outlook mails is the time the message was stored at the server, rather than the actual message was copied from the server to the local store. This makes the delivery date an ideal date for Microsoft Outlook draft messages, that have never been sent.

Email formats do not save the file system properties, that is, modification and creation date, of the attachment.

For Microsoft Outlook email attachments the codification and creation date are extracted. Most email programs that accept Microsoft Outlook emails, for example Web mail including Gmail, will not transmit the proper dates and thus the attachment date are modified to the Send date of the email.

Last accessed date is not part of the CORE document model because the date itself is too volatile.

This date is not used by default, because it is part of the document properties, but not of the file properties in the file system.

Date properties of a Microsoft Word document

Date properties of a Microsoft Word file in the file system

It can be configured that the last printed date is extracted and used by the application, but not for the Document Date.

Are the calendar items as start date and end date also used for Document Date?

These items are not used for Document Date, as they are part of the document date properties. They are displayed as text in the XML file.

Aid4Mail is a program that is used to convert various email formats into PST container files as an intermediate format that can be processed. For these converted documents there is no creation or modification date available. Only the sent or delivery date of the emails, calendar entries, tasks or address entries can be used as Document Date. The following formats are converted by this program:

• Apple Inc. OS X Tiger Mail EMLX
• Eudora Mailbox
• Microsoft Entourage items archive RGE (Text, metadata - not folder structure)
• Microsoft Outlook Express enhanced support
• MSF Index of mail messages stored in a variety of email programs, including Netscape Mail and Mozilla Thunderbird
• SNM Index of messages stored in a Netscape Messenger or Collabra mailbox

It would be possible but is not part of the standard template.

The standard template does not use the Microsoft Office properties.

Emails have these properties and they may be relevant, for example when the sender wrote the email vs when it was actually sent.

For Microsoft Outlook emails, the last modified and created dates are only reliable when they are retrieved from a PST file before data loading.

When Microsoft Outlook items are saved as loose files to disk, for example, as MSG files, Microsoft Outlook changes the creation and modification dates to the current date. This can be identical with the MSG file’s Last Modified or Created file properties, but this is purely accidental. Additionally, later changes to loose files are not reflected by the Last Modified or Created Dates of the Microsoft Outlook item.

To verify that an Microsoft Outlook email has been stored as loose file, check the document metadata. The Store Name field should either be empty, that is, not shown in the metadata, or not contain a filename with the PST extension.

In general the creation and last modification dates are independent from sent date. For example, you can create an email, but do not send it at once, but save it as a draft. After some days you modify the email and save it again. Some days later you send this email. So the creation and last modification date will be different from the sent or received date.

Especially conversion tools for emails may not respect the creation and last modification dates if they are applied.

Note: Some email formats only contain a single date which is usually interpreted as sent date, for example, most text email programs like EML. This also applies to Aid4Mail used by Axcelerate for such formats.

This depends on the way how the attachment is added to the email. Microsoft Outlook stores the information in a different manner depending on how the file is attached to the email.

• If the attachment is copied to the email, the created date has the timestamp of the moment the attachment is added to the email. The Document Date and modification date then refer to the root email sent date.
• If the attachment is added to the email via the Outlook menu, the last modified date of the document is preserved and the created date still refers to the timestamp, when the attachment was added to the email. The Document Date will be the sent date of the email.
• If there are several attachments that are compressed in a zip file and then attached to the email via Microsoft Outlook (as well copied as added by Outlook menu), their original created dates are preserved, too.