Inspect workbooks for hidden data and personal information

If you plan to share an electronic copy of a Microsoft Office Excel workbook, it is a good idea to review the workbook for hidden data or personal information that might be stored in the workbook itself or its document properties (metadata ). Because this hidden information can reveal details about your organization or about the workbook itself that you might not want to share publicly, you might want to remove this hidden information before you share the workbook with other people.

This article explains how the Document Inspector feature in Microsoft Office Excel can help you find and remove hidden data and personal information in your Excel workbooks.In this article

What types of hidden data and personal information are stored in workbooks?

What information can the Document Inspector find and remove from workbooks?

How do I find and remove hidden data and personal information in my workbooks?

What types of hidden data and personal information are stored in workbooks?

Several types of hidden data and personal information can be saved in an Excel workbook. This information might not be immediately visible when you view the workbook in Office Excel, but it might be possible for other people to view or retrieve the information.

Hidden information can include the data that Office Excel adds to a workbook to enable you to collaborate on it with other people. It can also include information that you deliberately designate as hidden.

Excel workbooks can contain the following types of hidden data and personal information:

• Comments and ink annotations If you collaborated with other people to create your workbook, your workbook might contain items such as comments or ink annotations. This information can enable other people to see the names of people who worked on your workbook, comments from reviewers, and changes that were made to your workbook.
• Document properties and personal information Document properties, also known as metadata, include details about your workbook such as author, subject, and title. Document properties also include information that is automatically maintained by Office programs, such as the name of the person who most recently saved a workbook and the date when a document was created. If you used specific features, your document might also contain additional kinds of personally identifiable information (PII), such as e-mail headers, send-for-review information, routing slips, printer paths, and file path information for publishing Web pages.
• Headers and footers Excel workbooks can contain information in headers and footers.
• Hidden rows, columns, and worksheets In an Excel workbook, rows, columns, and entire worksheets can be hidden. If you distribute a copy of a workbook that contains hidden rows, columns, or worksheets, other people might unhide these row, columns, or worksheets and view the data that they contain.
• Document server properties If your workbook was saved to a location on a document management server, such as a Document Workspace site or a library based on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, the workbook might contain additional document properties or information related to this server location.
• Custom XML data Workbooks can contain custom XML data that is not visible in the document itself. The Document Inspector can find and remove this XML data.
• Invisible content A workbook can contain objects that are not visible because they are formatted as invisible.

What information can the Document Inspector find and remove from workbooks?

In Office Excel, the Document Inspector displays several different Inspectors that enable you to find and remove hidden data and personal information that is specific to Excel workbooks. For a list of the different types of hidden data and personal information that the Document Inspector can find and remove from Excel workbooks, review the following table.

Note If your organization customized the Document Inspector by adding Inspector modules, you might be able to check your workbooks for additional types of information.

Office Excel

How do I find and remove hidden data and personal information in my workbooks?

You can use the Document Inspector to find and remove hidden data and personal information in Excel workbooks that were created in Office Excel and earlier versions. It is a good idea to use the Document Inspector before you share an electronic copy of your workbook, such as in an e-mail attachment.

1. Open the workbook that you want to inspect for hidden data and personal information.
2. Click the Microsoft Office Button , click Save As, and then type a name in the File name box to save a copy of your original workbook.

   Important It is a good idea to use the Document Inspector on a copy of your original workbook because it is not always possible to restore the data that the Document Inspector removes.

3. In the copy of your original workbook, click the Microsoft Office Button , point to Prepare, and then click Inspect Document.
4. In the Document Inspector dialog box, select the check boxes to choose the types of hidden content that you want to be inspected. For more information about the individual Inspectors, see What information can the Document Inspector find and remove from workbooks?
5. Click Inspect.
6. Review the results of the inspection in the Document Inspector dialog box.
7. Click Remove All next to the inspection results for the types of hidden content that you want to remove from your document.

   Important

   • If you remove hidden content from your document, you might not be able to restore it by clicking Undo.
   • If you remove hidden rows, columns, or worksheets that contain data, you might change the results of the calculations or formulas in your workbook. If you do not know what information the hidden rows, columns or worksheets contain, close the Document Inspector, unhide the hidden rows, columns, or worksheets, and then review their contents.