Guide · Updated 2 November 2026

Remove metadata from Word documents

Word files keep your name, your company, comments, tracked changes and sometimes text you thought you deleted. Here's how to clean them before sending.

Short answer

In Word for Windows, save a copy, then go to File > Info > Check for Issues > Inspect Document, tick the categories, click Inspect, and click Remove All next to each one you want gone. Word for Mac has no Document Inspector; instead use Tools > Protect Document and turn on the option to remove personal information from the file on save.

What Word keeps that you can't see

To see exactly what your own file contains before you clean it, drop it into the Word and PDF metadata viewer. It runs in your browser and shows comments, tracked deletions and hidden text.

  • Document properties: author, last saved by, company, manager, title, template and dates.
  • Comments and tracked changes, including who made each one and when.
  • Hidden text, formatted to be invisible.
  • Previous versions, if version history is stored with the file.
  • Headers, footers and watermarks, which may include names or draft labels.
  • Custom XML data added by templates or other software.

Windows: use Document Inspector

  1. Save a copy of the document. Some removals can't be undone.
  2. Open the copy and go to File > Info.
  3. Click Check for Issues > Inspect Document.
  4. Tick the categories you want checked and click Inspect.
  5. Next to each category with results, click Remove All.
  6. Click Reinspect to confirm everything is gone, then save.

Document Inspector can remove comments, revisions, versions and ink; document properties and personal information; headers, footers and watermarks; hidden text; custom XML data; and invisible content.

Mac: remove personal information on save

Word for Mac doesn't have Document Inspector. Instead:

  1. Go to Tools > Protect Document.
  2. Turn on the option to remove personal information from this file on save.
  3. Click OK and save the document.

Then delete comments and accept or reject tracked changes yourself from the Review tab, since this option doesn't remove them.

What to check by hand

Document Inspector misses a few things:

  • White text on a white background, and anything hidden behind an image or shape.
  • Content in embedded objects, like an embedded Excel sheet with more data than is shown.
  • File names and the document's title, which recipients see.

A quick final pass, Select All (Ctrl+A) and setting the font colour to black, reveals white text.

Questions

What metadata does a Word document contain?

The author and last-editor names, company, template, creation and edit dates, total editing time, comments, tracked changes, and sometimes hidden text, custom XML data and personal information in headers and footers.

Can removed metadata be restored?

Microsoft warns that some removed data can't be restored with Undo. That's why you should always inspect a copy, not your only version.

Does Document Inspector catch everything?

No. It removes text formatted as hidden, but not text coloured white on a white background or objects hidden behind other objects. Look through the document yourself for those.

Does saving as PDF remove Word metadata?

Partly. Comments and tracked changes usually don't carry over by default, but author and title properties often do. Clean the Word file first, then export.