Quark Xpress And Illustrator File Creation Date Problems

lukas2k · #1 November 19th, 2005, 03:30 PM

I like to check how much time I worked on new projects by checking the difference between the creation date and the last save I've made to the documents.

I've notice a problem with the file creation and modification dates with Quark and Illustrator documents on Mac OS X 10.4.3.

As soon as you save the document, the creation date is automatically changed to the date of your modification. As if the file is completely replaced and not appended to.

Anybody as noticed the same problem ?

ElDiabloConCaca · #2 November 19th, 2005, 05:35 PM

What format is the hard drive in that you are saving the files to? HFS+? FAT32?

FAT32 has been known to do this -- for example, when copying files to a FAT32 device via the Finder, you may find that both the modified and creation dates are set to the time the file was copied, making it difficult to tell when the file was really created.

lukas2k · #3 January 17th, 2006, 11:09 AM

Wow forgot I posted this problem...

The disk is formated in HFS+...

Perplexus · #4 June 19th, 2009, 12:25 PM

Years later, same problem. Any solution? I'm using Mac OS 10.4.11.

ElDiabloConCaca · #5 June 19th, 2009, 02:19 PM

It sounds as if QuarkXPress and Adobe Illustrator do their "saves" different than other programs.

I believe this is what's happening "behind the scenes" when a "Save" is performed:

1) Write data out to a temporary file.
2) Ensure temporary file is consistent and non-corrupt.
3) Delete original file.
4) Rename and move the temporary file to the location of the original file.

If that's truly what's going on, then the mod date and creation date would always be the same after a "Save" operation.

Perplexus · #6 June 28th, 2009, 11:19 AM

Thank you for your reply. Once I stopped thinking of Quark as "broken", I began to seek other methods of keeping dates accurate. I found an AppleScript droplet and some other programs that can change the creation date of a file. Although I would prefer it if Quark and Illustrator would do the work themselves, at least now I can correct dates on some old digital camera jpegs.

Natobasso · #7 June 28th, 2009, 10:01 PM

Why not use EXIF data in the images to give them proper dates? Might be a possibility?

The Following User Says Thank You to ElDiabloConCaca For This Useful Post:
Perplexus (June 28th, 2009)