Stop adding personal information when sending Office documents

Before you give others a copy of the document, it is a good idea to review personal and hidden information, and decide whether it is appropriate to include. You may want to remove some information from the document and from the document file properties before you share the document with others.

Where is personal or hidden information stored?

File properties    These properties include Author, Manager, Company, and Last Saved By.

Other hidden information     For example, hidden, revised text, comments, or field code can remain in a document even though you don't see it or expect it to be in the final version. If you entered personal information such as your name or e-mail address when you registered your software, some Microsoft Office documents store that information as part of the document.

Information contained in custom fields that you add to the document, such as an 'author' or 'owner' field, is not automatically removed. You must edit or remove the custom field to remove that information.

When you attach a Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, or Microsoft PowerPoint file to an e-mail message, personal information, such as your name or e-mail address, is added to the attached file properties to enable the tracking and merging of changes. You can prevent personal information from being added by doing the following:

1. In Microsoft Outlook, on the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Click E-mail options, and then click Advanced E-mail options.
3. Under When sending a message, clear the Add properties to attachments to enable Reply with Changes check box.

Note  For more information about removing personal information in other Microsoft Office programs, see the online Help for that Office program.