Inspect documents for hidden data and personal information

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

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

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

What information can the Document Inspector find and remove from Word documents?

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

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

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

Hidden information can include the data that Office Word adds to a document to enable you to collaborate on writing and editing it with other people. It can also include information that you deliberately designate as hidden.

Word documents can contain the following types of hidden data and personal information:

• Comments, revision marks from tracked changes, versions, and ink annotations If you collaborated with other people to create your document, your document might contain items such as revision marks from tracked changes, comments, ink annotations, or versions. This information can enable other people to see the names of people who worked on your document, comments from reviewers, and changes that were made to your document.
• Document properties and personal information Document properties, also known as metadata, include details about your document 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 document 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, and template names.
• Headers, footers, and watermarks Word documents can contain information in headers and footers. Additionally, you might have added a watermark to your Word document.
• Hidden text Word documents can contain text that is formatted as hidden text. If you do not know whether your document contains hidden text, you can use the Document Inspector to search for it.
• Document server properties If your document 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 document might contain additional document properties or information related to this server location.
• Custom XML data Documents can contain custom XML data that is not visible in the document itself. The Document Inspector can find and remove this XML data.

What information can the Document Inspector find and remove from Word documents?

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

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

Office Word

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

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

1. Open the Word document 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 document.

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

3. In the copy of your original document, 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 Word documents?
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.