This article explains various methods that you can use to minimize the amount of metadata in your Word documents.
Whenever you create, open, or save a Word document, it creates metadata. Metadata is used for a variety of purposes to enhance the editing, viewing, filing, and retrieval of Office documents.
Here are some examples of metadata that may be stored in your documents:
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Your name
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Your initials
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Your company or organization name
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The name of your computer
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The name of the network server or hard disk where you saved the document
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Other file properties and summary information
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Non-visible portions of embedded OLE objects
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The names of previous document authors
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Document revisions
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Document versions
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Template information
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Hidden text
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Comments
Metadata is created in a variety of ways in Word documents. As a result, there is no single method to remove all such content from your documents. The following sections describe areas where metadata may be saved in Word documents.