In the worst case this means that if you leave for, say, 2 hours, then you come back, make a quick change and then Save, your document's Total Editing Time will increase by 2 hours. As long as your Word document window is in front, the timer will continue. The bad news: Microsoft Word can't tell whether you've paused to think about your writing or if you've left the room. The good news: Without closing your document, if you switch to another Word document or to another program entirely (to check your email, visit a web site, etc.), that first document's timer will pause until you bring its window back to the front. If you send a copy of your document to someone else and get an edited copy back, the time they spent editing will also be added to the Total Editing Time. The timer only counts whole minutes, and doesn't keep a history of each incremental amount. If you close without saving, the additional time is discarded. If you Save your changes, the additional time is added to the document's Total Editing Time. As long as your document is open and its window is in front of all other windows, the timer continues, whether you're actively changing the document, scrolling around, or just thinking. When you open a Microsoft Word document, a behind-the-scenes timer starts.

Have you ever wondered how much time you spend writing in Microsoft Word? It turns out that Word has always kept track of your time, and has automatically been storing this information in each of your documents all along.

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