MORE INFORMATION
Metadata is created in a variety of ways within Word
documents. As a result, there is no single method that you can use to eliminate
all such content from your documents. The following sections describe areas
where metadata may be saved in Word documents.
If You Don't Already Have Microsoft Office 97 SR-2
If you are not already using it, you should obtain and install
Microsoft Office 97 Service Release 2 (SR-2). To download SR-2, use your Web
browser to visit the following Microsoft Web site:
How to Remove Your User Name from Your Programs
You can view or change your user name. To do so, follow these
steps:
- Click Options on the Tools menu. Select the User Information tab.
You should see the following edit boxes:
Name
Initials
Mailing Address
- If you do not want any of this information to appear in
your documents, enter non-identifying strings or spaces in the appropriate edit
boxes, and then click OK to accept the changes.
Any new documents that you create will contain this
information, rather than the default values entered when you installed Office.
However, existing documents may already contain this information.
How to Remove Personal Summary Information
When you create or save a document in Word, summary information
may be saved within the document. There are several methods you can use to
access this information:
- Open the document. On the File menu, click Properties. The Summary, Statistics, Contents, and Custom tabs may all contain various properties such as your name, your
manager's name, and your company name.
- In the Windows Explorer, right-click the document, and
click Properties on the shortcut menu. As above, the tabs within the Properties dialog box may contain information.
- It is possible to use a Visual Basic for Applications macro
or other program code to read the properties shown in the Properties dialog box.
You can clear summary information from an existing document or
template. To do so, follow these steps:
- Open the document or the template.
- On the File menu, click Properties.
- On the Summary tab, clear the Author, Manager, Company, and any other edit boxes that you do not want to distribute.
- On the Custom tab, delete any properties that contain information you do not
want to distribute.
- When you are done, click OK. Click Save on the File menu. Then click Close on the File menu.
After you have completed these steps, the document should not
contain summary properties.
Removing Personal Summary Information When Connected to a Network
If you are logged on to a network, your network user name may
appear in the
Author edit box on the
Summary tab and in the
Last saved by field on the
Statistics tab, when you save a document. This can occur even if you have
removed all other personal information from your computer.
To remove
summary information from a document when you are on a network, follow these
steps:
- If the document is stored on a network server, copy it to
your local hard disk.
- Start your computer, but do NOT log on to your network.
When you see the network logon dialog box, click Cancel or press ESCAPE.
Note If you cannot start Windows by pressing ESCAPE (for example, your
computer is running Windows NT), you cannot continue these steps. - Open the document.
- On the File menu, click Properties.
- On the Summary tab, clear the Author, Manager, Company, and any other edit boxes that contain information you do not
want to distribute.
- On the Custom tab, delete any properties that contain information that you do
not want to distribute.
- When you are done, click OK. Click Save on the File menu. Then click Close on the File menu.
When you log on to the network,
do not open the file. If you do, your network user name may be written into the file.
However, you can use the Windows Explorer to copy the file to either a network
server or a floppy disk.
How to Remove Comments Within Documents
Microsoft Word offers the ability to add comments to documents.
Typically, comments contain the name of the person who created them, so that
you can tell who wrote them.
Comments typically appear as a
highlighted section of text; you can right-click in the comment, and then click
Delete Comment.
Any new comments that you create should not contain
your user name, because you have removed it from your
Options dialog box, as shown above.
How to Remove Headers and Footers from Documents
Headers and footers in documents may contain identifying
information. To remove information from headers and footers, follow these
steps:
- Click Header and Footer on the View menu.
- The header and footer appear at the top and bottom of each
page in your document; change them as you want.
- When you are done, click Close on the Header and Footer toolbar.
How to Remove Revision Marks
Documents can contain revision marks, which allow you to
determine who makes specific changes to a document. When you accept or reject
revision marks, the revised text is saved in the document, and the revision
marks are removed.
How to Disable FastSave
The FastSave feature speeds up the process of saving a document
by saving only the changes that are made to a document.
Because of
the design of the FastSave feature, text that you delete from a document may
remain in the document, even after you save the document. If you are concerned
about deleted text remaining in your documents, follow these steps:
- On the Tools menu, click Options.
- Select the Save tab.
- Clear the "Allow fast saves" check box. Click OK.
Note In Microsoft Word 97 SR-1 and later, the FastSave feature is
turned off by default.
For additional
information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base:
71999
WD97: How to disable the Fast Saves option
190733 WD97: Opening Word document in text editor displays deleted text
192480 WD97: Frequently asked questions about "Allow Fast Saves
How to Search for and Remove Text Formatted As Hidden
In Word documents, it is possible to format text as hidden.
Because hidden text can contain information you may not want to distribute, you
may want to unhide and remove it. To remove all of the text in a document that
is formatted as hidden, follow these steps:
- On the Tools menu, click Options. Select the View tab.
- Select the Hidden text check box, and click OK.
- On the Edit menu, click Replace.
- Click the More button to expand the dialog box.
- Click in the edit box next to Find what.
- Click the Format button, and then click Font. Select the Hidden check box, and click OK.
- Click Replace All.
All hidden text is removed from the document. To turn off the
display of hidden text, follow these steps:
- On the Tools menu, click Options. Select the View tab.
- Clear the Hidden text check box. Click OK.
How to Remove Hyperlinks from Documents
Documents may contain hyperlinks to other documents or Web pages
on an intranet or the Internet. Hyperlinks usually appear as blue underlined
text strings.
You can manually delete a single hyperlink from a
document by right-clicking the hyperlink, pointing to
Hyperlink on the shortcut menu, and clicking
Remove Hyperlink.
If you want to delete all hyperlinks in a document,
you can use a Visual Basic for Applications macro to do this.
For additional information, click the following article
number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
156353
XL97: No menu choice to select all hyperlinks
How to Remove Styles from Documents
Documents may include styles that contain metadata. You can
remove these styles or rename them. To do this, follow these steps:
- Open the document that contains the styles.
- On the Format menu, click Style.
- Select the style that you want to delete or rename. Click Delete to delete the style, or click Modify to rename it.
How to Remove Old File Versions from Documents
Word includes a file version feature that allows you to save
multiple versions of the same document within the same file. You may want to
delete older versions of the document before you share it with others.
To delete one or more versions of a document, follow these steps:
- On the File menu, click Versions.
- Select the version of the document that you want to delete.
You can select more than one version by pressing the CTRL key while you select
the versions.
- Click Delete.
- When you are finished deleting old versions of the
document, click Save on the File menu.
How to Remove Links from Field Codes
Linked images and other objects in Word documents may contain
linking information, such as the path to the linked image or object. You can
remove linking information from your document by editing the field codes.
To display field codes, follow these steps:
- On the Tools menu, click Options. Select the View tab.
- Select the Field codes check box. Click OK.
After field codes are visible, you can check to see whether any
of them contain identifying information.
To remove the linking
information from a linked image or other object, follow these steps:
- Select the linked image or object. Or select the field code
for the image or object, if field codes are visible.
- Press CTRL+SHIFT+F9.
The image or object is now unlinked. Note that unlinking an
image or object may cause it to be uneditable.
How to Remove the Template Name and Location
All documents created in Word are based on a template. By
default, this is the Normal.dot template file, located in the Templates folder.
However, you can create a document that is based on a different template in
another location. The path and name of this template are stored within the
document's properties.
To view the template name and location, click
Properties on the
File menu and select the
Summary tab.
Even if you do not send the template with the
document, the document retains the name and location of the template. To change
the template name and location to non-identifying values, follow these steps:
- On the Tools menu, click Templates and Add-Ins.
- Click Attach.
- Select a template that has a name and location that are not
sensitive or unique. For example, because every computer that has Microsoft
Word installed includes Normal.dot, you may want to select Normal.dot.
- Click Open. Then click OK.
Note The template may contain macros, autotext entries, custom styles,
and custom toolbars. Changing templates may make some of these items
unavailable to your document.
How to Remove Routing Slip Information
If you send a document through e-mail using a routing slip,
routing information may be attached to the document. To remove this information
from the document, you must save the document in a format that does not retain
routing slip information.
In Microsoft Word, save your document in
either RTF (Rich Text Format) or HTML format. Close the document, and then
reopen the new file. Because the routing slip information is no longer present,
you can now save your document in the Microsoft Word format.
You can
also follow these steps:
- Turn off FastSave using the instructions shown above.
- On the File menu, point to Send to, and click Other Routing Recipient.
- Click Clear to remove the routing slip. Then click OK.
- On the File menu, click Save.
The document is now saved without any routing slip information.
How to Remove the Names of Previous Authors
Word stores the names of the last 10 people who worked on a
document in the document. This is an automatic feature that cannot be disabled.
However, you can remove the names of the last 10 authors from a
document by saving the document in a format that does not retain such
information. For example, if you save the document in either RTF (Rich Text
Format) or HTML format, the authoring information is lost. You can then close
and reopen the RTF/HTML document and save it in Microsoft Word format.
How to Remove Your Name from Visual Basic Code
When you record a Visual Basic macro in Word, the recorded macro
begins with a header similar to the following:
' Macro1 Macro
' Macro recorded 3/11/1999 by <User Name>
To remove your name from any macros that you have recorded,
follow these steps:
- Open the document that contains the macros.
- On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and click Visual Basic Editor. Or press ALT+F11.
- In the project window, double-click the module that
contains the macros.
- Remove your name from the recorded macro code.
When you are finished removing your name, press ALT+Q to return
to the program. Then click
Save on the
File menu.
How to Remove Visual Basic References to Other Files
In the Visual Basic Editor, it is possible to create a reference
to another file. If a user opens a document that contains references to other
files, the user can see the names of the referenced files.
To remove
these references, follow these steps:
- Open the document that contains references.
- On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and click Visual Basic Editor. Or press ALT+F11.
- On the Tools menu, click References.
- Clear the check box next to the referenced file or files.
When you are finished, click OK.
- Press ALT+Q.
- On the File menu, click Save.
Note Removing references to other files may impair the ability of
macros in your document from functioning correctly.
How to Remove Network or Hard Disk Information
When you save a document to your local hard disk or to a network
server, information that identifies the local hard disk or network server may
be written into the document.
You can remove this information from
the document. To do so, follow these steps:
- Open the document.
- On the File menu, click Save As. Save the document to your floppy disk drive (usually, A:).
- On the File menu, click Close.
- Remove the floppy disk from your floppy disk drive.
You can now use the Windows Explorer to copy the document from
the floppy disk to any hard disk or network server.
Note: Due to the space limitation of a floppy disk (usually 1.44 MB),
this method cannot be used if the document file size exceeds the amount of free
space on the floppy disk.
Embedded Objects Within Documents May Contain Metadata
If you embed an object within a document, the object still
retains its own properties, regardless of what you do to the document. For
example, if you embed a Microsoft Excel workbook within a Word document, the
document and the workbook each has its own properties.
You can
remove metadata from an embedded object by activating the object, removing any
metadata as described above, reactivating the container document (using the
above example, this would be the Word document), and then saving the container
document.
Note When you activate an embedded object in a document, only part of
the embedded object is displayed within the document; the object may contain
additional information that does not appear. If you want a document to contain
only a rendering of the embedded object and not the actual contents, cut the
object and then use the
Paste Special item on the
Edit menu to paste the object into the document using a Metafile
format. After you do this, you can no longer edit the embedded object; however,
it will not contain any metadata.
How to Remove Unique Identifiers from Office Documents
Because of the design of the programs included in Microsoft
Office 97, documents that are created or saved in Office 97 programs may
contain a unique identifier.
For additional information about these identifiers and
how to remove them, click the following article number to view the article in
the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
222180
OFF97: How and why unique identifiers are created in Office documents
General Suggestions Concerning Security
Here are some general suggestions that you can use to increase
the level of security in your computing environment:
- Whenever you are not at your computer, secure it with a
password-protected screen saver, power-on password, or the Windows NT lock
feature.
- If your computer has any shared folders, make sure you
apply passwords to them so that only authorized users can access your shares.
For even better security, use user-level access control, so that you can
control exactly who can access your computer's shares.
- When you delete a file, empty the Recycle Bin immediately.
You may want to consider a utility that completely erases or overwrites files
when they are deleted.
- When you back up your data, store the backup files in a
secure location, such as a safe, a security deposit box, or a locked cabinet.
Store one copy of your backups at a secure off-site location in case your
primary location is unusable.
- Important documents should be password-protected, to ensure
that only authorized users can open them. Your passwords should be stored in a
secure, separate location. Note that if you cannot recall a password, there is
no way to recover the contents of a password-protected document.
- Do not distribute documents in electronic form. Instead,
print them out. Do not use identifying elements such as distinctive fonts,
watermarks, logos, or special paper, unless necessary (for example, for a
presentation).
- E-mail is NOT anonymous. Do not e-mail a document if you
are concerned about your identity being attached in any way to the document.
- Do not send a document over the Internet using either the
HTTP or FTP protocol. Information sent across these protocols is sent in "clear
text", which means that it is technically possible (however unlikely) for it to
be intercepted.
For More Information
For
additional information about the topics that are discussed in this article,
click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base:
195005
WD97: Some document properties populated automatically
216866 WD97: Summary information under properties is not encrypted
178121 WD97: No password prompt for "Modify" in mail client
194494 WD97: Password protection lost when saving as previous versions
170940 WD97: Password not prompted with first expansion of sub-document
223396 OFF: How to minimize metadata in Microsoft Office documents
223789 XL: How to minimize metadata in Microsoft Excel workbooks
223793 PPT97: How to minimize metadata in Microsoft PowerPoint presentations