Skip to content
CreatorPrivacyKit
Learn Blog Privacy @mollycoddle330

Remove metadata from a Word document

Remove metadata from a Word document?

Microsoft Document Inspector, opened from File, Info, Check for Issues, Inspect Document, can remove Word document properties from the Summary, Statistics, and Custom tabs, and it still misses white text on a white background because that text is not the Font dialog hidden effect.

Last updated

Microsoft Document Inspector, opened from File, Info, Check for Issues, Inspect Document, can remove Word document properties from the Summary, Statistics, and Custom tabs, and it still misses white text on a white background because that text is not the Font dialog hidden effect.

Last checked 2026-10-22

Inspect a copy in Word

Microsoft says it is not always possible to restore data the Document Inspector removes, so the copy comes first. In Word the Document Properties and Personal Information inspector includes Summary, Statistics, and Custom, email headers, routing slips, send-for-review information, server properties, content type, username, and template name. Headers, footers, and watermarks are a separate inspector. Comments and revisions are another.

Hidden Text is only text formatted as hidden in the Font dialog. Microsoft’s note is explicit that other hiding methods, including white text on a white background, are not detected. Invisible Content does not see objects covered by other objects.

Strip the three property parts locally

Open Office document metadata, drop the DOCX, read the before column, remove the property parts, and read the after column before you send the download. On the session file, creator, company, template, and the custom property were gone and the body sentence remained. Then run verify if you want the two packages compared. The lab note records the XLSX and PPTX cases too.

Sources

Last checked 2026-10-22.

Questions

Where is Inspect Document?

Microsoft’s steps: save a copy, then File, Info, Check for Issues, Inspect Document, choose the inspectors, Inspect, then Remove All for the rows you want gone, then Reinspect or Close.

What does the browser tool not touch?

Comments, hidden text, headers, footers, and the document body. It removes docProps/core.xml, app.xml, custom.xml, and the relationships that point at them.

Related pages