Let's say I e-mail a Word XP or 2000 file to someone, and that person
is supposed to work on the file (suppose the file has questions, each
followed by answer sections to be filled in) and then e-mail it back
to me. How do I know the intended recipient actually typed in the
answers, and didn't e-mail someone else for them to do it instead,
i.e., how do I confirm who actually did the work? I know some of the
variations in the types of Word files I get back, including: 1) a
fresh Word file, which shows 1 minute of "total editing time" in the
properties; 2) a Word file which shows a reasonable "total editing
time", and with the intended recipient as "last saved by". There are
probably other scenarios. So again, how do I confirm who actually did
the work in the file?

How about if someone else did the work
where he was sitting, ie the file never
left his PC?  Curious to see answer also.

There might be a different way to this this properly, but this is the
only one I can think of at the moment. This will only work if the user
has got his or her real information entered in Tools > Options > User
Information in their copy of Word.

Before you send the document, password protect it for tracked changes
(Tools > Protect Document). When the user receives it and types any
text, it will appear in colour and with a vertical bar in the left
margin. After sending it back to you, and you hover the mouse pointer
over the text the user entered, you will see a box popping up with the
user's name.

To get the text to show as normal (eg black text), open Tools > Track
Changes > Accept or Reject Changes. In the following dialogue box
click on Accept All.

This will only tell you that it was typed on the user's machine, but
no guarantee that someone else didn't do it instead!

HTH
Laurent

Thanks very much to both of you.
Maybe one solution is an embedded Web bug, which won't definitely show
that the original person did the work but that at least it was on
his/her machine and not e-mailed to someone else. I'd pay for
privately delivered instructions on how to set up a web bug for Word
files (and pass on sermons about the practice, thanks anyway).