When you share a Microsoft Word document with a client, publish it to a public website, or submit it for a professional review, you are often sharing much more information than the text visible on the page. Every Word document contains a layer of invisible metadata and hidden formatting that can reveal sensitive information about you and your organization.
This hidden data can include your actual name (or the name of your computer), the total amount of time you spent editing the document, previous versions of the text, comments you thought you deleted, hidden text formatted to be invisible, and customized XML data. Handing this metadata to the wrong person can lead to privacy breaches or professional embarrassment.
To prevent this, Microsoft Word includes a dedicated security tool called the Document Inspector. It scans your file for hidden metadata and strips it out permanently before you share the document.
Step 1: Save a Copy of Your Document
This is the most critical step. The Document Inspector removes data permanently. If it deletes your tracked changes or comments, you cannot simply press “Undo” to get them back once the file is saved.
Always run the Document Inspector on a copy of your final document, not the original master file.
- Open your finalized document.
- Go to File > Save a Copy (or Save As).
- Add the word “Cleaned” or “Public” to the filename and save it.
Step 2: Run the Document Inspector
With your safe copy open, you can initiate the scan.
- Click the File tab in the top-left corner of the ribbon.
- Select Info from the blue sidebar on the left.
- Look for the section titled Inspect Document (usually the first large square block on the screen).
- Click the button labeled Check for Issues.
- From the dropdown menu, select Inspect Document.
A new dialog box will appear, listing all the different types of hidden data the tool can search for. By default, every box is checked. It is highly recommended to leave them all checked to ensure a thorough scan.
Click the Inspect button at the bottom of the dialog box. The scan usually takes less than a second.
Step 3: Review the Results and Remove Data
After the scan finishes, the dialog box will refresh to display the results.
- Categories marked with a Green Checkmark mean that no hidden data of that type was found.
- Categories marked with a Red Exclamation Mark (!) mean that sensitive information is currently embedded in your file.
The most common offender is “Document Properties and Personal Information”, which contains your author name, company name, and editing time.
To strip the sensitive data, simply click the Remove All button next to any category showing a red exclamation mark.
Once you have clicked “Remove All” for the necessary categories, click the Close button.
Step 4: Save the Cleaned Document
After running the Document Inspector, you must save the file one final time to lock in the changes.
Press Ctrl + S (or click the save icon). This version of the file is now scrubbed clean of metadata, comments, and hidden text, and is completely safe to email to external clients or publish publicly.
What the Document Inspector Looks For
Understanding what the tool removes helps you realize why it is so important:
- Comments, Revisions, and Versions: Removes all tracked changes and editorial comments in the margins.
- Document Properties: Removes the Author name, company metadata, routing slips, and the “total editing time” statistic.
- Hidden Text: Removes any text that was specifically formatted as “Hidden” in the font menu.
- Custom XML Data: Removes underlying data structures sometimes added by third-party plugins.
- Invisible Content: Objects or shapes formatted to have no outline and no fill color, which are invisible to the eye but still exist in the file.