Converting from word 97 Office 2003 Document to Word 2016 and have lost my creation dates!

When you convert the file format you are creating a new version of the file, hence a new create date. MS doesn't care about our need to preserve that historical information.

In the new document, you could manually put the original date into a custom document property.

Creating Custom Document Properties

https://wordribbon.tips.net/T012599_Creating_Custom_Document_Properties.html

Word allows you to keep track of any number of custom properties about a document. Here’s how to create those properties and later use them in a document.

Before converting the document, select the CREATEDATE field and press CTRL+SHIFT+F9, which will convert the field result to ordinary text so that it will not be changed by the conversion process.

However, as others have said, there is no real reason to convert such files to .docx format.

I'm not sure about the malware potential of XML format files.

Everything has to be considered on a cost vs benefit basis.  DOT, and their generated DOC files are open to containing macros. Macros are a known malware vector. Actually, my very first exposure to malware "in the wild" was macro malware.  Our LAN administrator was going crazy because we kept getting Office DOC file malware infections, EVERY DAY. He would run network scans to clean the infections, and next day they would be back. Eventually he tracked problem down to documents that were being shared (with a nation wide company with a commonly known name). They had an infestation, and every document that came back from them was infected. 

The point is, there STILL are risks to using that file type. There are mitigations that help control the risk. If you have them in place, the risk is reduced, not eliminated.  So your company has to decide if the risk is worth the "cost saving" of not updating the file types.

What sort of mitigation? Things like:

• using "File Block" to open DOC files in Protected mode to block macros
• daily antimalware scans

Here are a couple of MS articles on the subject.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/intelligence/prevent-malware-infection

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/intelligence/phishing

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/intelligence/macro-malware

Rohn, I routinely use the XML file format. I do not see a reason to convert old documents though, so long as the current version of Word will open them. I am a strong proponent of not re-using documents but rather using templates.

However, I have some old protected forms where updating the file format really messes up the formatting. They are currently .dot files and I save the new documents as .doc files to prevent this reformatting. These are court forms that we are not supposed to mess with.

Any time you use SaveAs for a document with a CreateDate field, the field will adopt the new date. Using Date Fields in Microsoft Word

I opend a doc in Word 365 that was created 30th Oct 2006, (97-2003 format) nothing was changed, I didnt opt to change the format, is there some reason that you wish to change the format of an old doc?