

#WORD DOCUMENT INFO HOW TO#
So it’s worth that moment of your time to make sure you’re not sharing something personal or sensitive.įor more on keeping your data safe, take a look at how to protect your Windows computer from ransomware and how to permanently shred files on Windows too.Avoid unintentionally distributing hidden information, such as the document author and names that are associated with comments or tracked changes, by removing hidden data. The process of running the inspection on your document takes less than one minute. Keep Your Data Safe When Sharing Word Documents And if you’re concerned about not being able to restore something you remove with the Document Inspector, consider saving the original document (before using the tool) and sharing a copy (after using the tool) instead.

Let’s take a deeper look at the types of items included in the Document Inspector categories. For instance, if the document includes the name of the template used, you might be fine letting that item remain. Obviously, not all items are as important as others, so you may not be concerned if your shared document contains some of them. So please keep this in mind before hitting that Remove All button. Just note the warning at the bottom of the tool which reiterates the statement from Microsoft: Some changes cannot be undone. Or you can Close the tool, make changes yourself, and then reinspect it. You can click the Remove All button next to items found to remove them from your document. The red exclamation points indicate items have been found and you’ll see exactly what those items are. The green checkmarks mean no items were found. You’ll then see the results of the inspection. You have almost a dozen categories from comments and revisions to custom XML and invisible content.

When the Document Inspector displays, check the boxes for all items you want the tool to look for.If you have not saved your document yet, you may be prompted to do so.Before you click that button, you may see details next to it with a summary of what’s been found already. Next to Inspect Document, click Check for Issues.Click the File tab and select Info on the left side.To view that hidden data, open the document you want to check and then follow these steps. So depending on the details, the inspector finds, the intent of your document, and who you plan to share it with, consider this option. The reason for this is that if you use the tool to remove data, it may not be possible to restore it afterward.

View Hidden Data in Your Documentįirst things first, Microsoft recommends that you use the process below on a copy of your document rather than the original. Here, we’ll show you how to inspect your document for these types of details in the document itself and in the metadata, and remove them from your Word document. Without knowing it, you can share a document that contains hidden text, comments, personal information, send-for-review details, and more.
