How can I insert the last saved date in Excel?

To insert the last saved date in Excel, follow these steps:

1. Open the Excel spreadsheet that you want to insert the last saved date in.
2. Click on the cell where you want the last saved date to appear.
3. In the formula bar at the top of the screen, type =TODAY(). This will automatically insert the current date in the selected cell.
4. To ensure that the date remains the last saved date, right-click on the cell and select “Format Cells”.
5. In the Number tab, select “Date” as the category and choose the desired date format.
6. Click “OK” to save the changes.
7. Now, whenever you save the Excel spreadsheet, the date in the selected cell will automatically update to the latest save date.

By following these steps, you can easily insert and update the last saved date in your Excel spreadsheet. This can be useful for keeping track of the most recent changes made to your data.

Insert Last Saved Date in Excel (With Example)


Often you may want to display the date that an Excel file was last saved.

The easiest way to do this is by writing some code in VBA in Excel.

This might seem intimidating if you’re not familiar with VBA but the process is straightforward and the following step-by-step example shows exactly how to do so.

Step 1: Show the Developer Tab in Excel

First, we need to make sure the Developer tab is visible on the top ribbon in Excel.

To do so, click the File tab, then click Options, then click Customize Ribbon.

Under the section called Main Tabs, check the box next to Developer, then click OK:

Step 2: Create a Macro Using VBA

Next, click the Developer tab along the top ribbon and then click the Visual Basic icon:

Next, click the Insert tab and then click Module from the dropdown menu:

Next, paste the following code into the module code editor:

Function LastSavedDate() As Date
  LastSavedDate = ActiveWorkbook.BuiltinDocumentProperties("Last Save Time")
End Function

The following screenshot shows how to do so:

Step 3: Use the Macro to Display the Last Saved Date

Lastly, we can use the macro we created to display the last saved date for the workbook.

To do so, type the following formula into any cell you’d like:

=LastSavedDate()

We’ll type this formula into cell A1:

By default, the function returns a numeric value.

To instead display a date, click cell A1 and then click the Number Format dropdown menu from the Home tab, then click Short Date:

The value in cell A1 will now be displayed as a date:

Excel last saved date

We can see that this particular Excel workbook was last saved on 11/20/2023.

Additional Resources

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common operations in Excel:

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