Remove Personal Info From Word Document

Before you start mass e-mailing that new word document you just made, make sure to strip out the metadata first or you risk sending personal/identifying information along with whatever you intend to send. Microsoft Word likes to keep a wealth of hidden information behind the scenes including changes to the file and comments.

If your using Office 2003, select Tools > Options and then click on the Security tab. Check the box that says Remove personal information from file properties on save and then click OK and save your document. Also check the box that says warn before printing, sending or, saving a file with tracked changes or comments.

If your using Office 2007, select the Office icon in the top left corner to bring up the menu. Click on Prepare > Inspect Document and Word will let you see what kind of personal info is hidden in the document. You can click on Remove All but this will also wipe out all headers, footers and watermarks which you may not want to delete.