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Microsoft Word is the most powerful document production application on the market today. With this much power, firms must take responsibility to understand and manage document metadata risks and potential "adverse disclosure."

Word documents contain information other than the actual content that is intended for the reviewer to view and edit. This information is called document metadata. In some cases the disclosure of this document metadata may have potential for harm or embarrassment.

The document metadata contained in a Word document other than the intended text doesn't necessarily create risk of adverse disclosure, because some document metadata is necessary for formatting or macro automation of the document. Some document metadata, such as Track Changes, may be used to share among Cooperators, but not with Adversaries.

Here are 10 Proven Tips to help Minimize Document Metadata in Microsoft Word.

Tip 1. Control Author Information

For the most part, you can control Author information in Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word has four areas that collect Author information:

User Name
User Initials
Document Author
Manager
Last Author

User Name and User Initials Control it All

The User Name and User Initials control what ends up in the others author properties of a Microsoft Word document. User Name and User Initials are found in Tools…Options…User Information tab (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 User Information tab

Unless you need your actual author name in this property for collaborative purposes, I'd advise changing user information to something more generic (see Figure 2).

User Information - Generic
Figure 2 User Information tab – generic

Document Author and Manager Properties

Microsoft Word's document author manager properties are contained in the built-in document properties of a document (see Figure 3). The document author is pulled from the User Information settings (see Figure 1), and is inserted when the document is created and stays with the document until changed or deleted.

Note: Dupe and revise (File…Save As) doesn't change this.

Document Author and Manager properties
Figure 3 Document Author and Manager properties

View (or Change) the Built-In Document Properties for the Current Document

Word 2003

On the File menu, click Properties.
Click the General tab to view file information Auto Update built-in document properties.
Click the Summary tab to view Standard Built-in document properties.
Note: These properties can be changed or deleted.
Click the Statistics tab to view statistical Auto Update Built-in document properties.

The Manager Document Property

The Manager Property is a user input property. That means one has to manually place text here. I have found though, that some template and macro applications use this field for automation purposes and place author information in this property. Be aware of this property in any case!

Last Saved By Author

Microsoft Word automatically pulls the author from the User Information property for the Last saved by author. This property CANNOT be control unless you change the User Information Author. My recommendation is to change the User Information Author to a generic name.

Tip 2. Know your Document's Dates and Times

Microsoft Word Statistics tab displays the Creation, Modified, Last Accessed, and Printed dates (see Figure 4). These fields cannot be changed unless you use Files Save As to create a new document or use a commercial metadata management tool.

Figure 4: Document's Dates and Times

Windows System Dates

When ever you copy or move a file from your local drive to the network, your system dates will change and will be off from Microsoft Word's document dates. Beware of this.

Recommendation: To minimize date discrepancies all new documents should be created from templates and duped and revised from existing documents.

Tip 3. Beware of Document Properties

Related to Document Author Properties, but on a broader scale are document Properties. Document Properties consist of two types - Built-in and Custom document properties.

Built-in Document Properties

Microsoft Word built-in document properties contain information about a document that describes or identifies it in some way. Built-in document properties are stored in the document and are not apart of the author’s content. They include information such as title, author name (mentioned above), subject, and dates that identify the document's subject matter or contents. Unlike custom document properties, Built-in document properties cannot be deleted and in some cases (i.e., Print date) cannot be changed.
Built-in document properties can be valuable for document identification for later use. For instance, built-in document properties can be used to search for specific documents based on their properties.

Built-in Document Properties Behavior Matrix

Property Type	Property Name	Value Can Be Changed	Can Be Viewed
Auto Update	Application name	No	Yes
Auto Update	Creation date	No	Yes
Auto Update	Format	No	No
Auto Update	Hyperlink base	No	Yes
Auto Update	Last author	No	Yes
Auto Update	Last print date	No	Yes
Auto Update	Last save time	No	Yes
Auto Update	Number of bytes	No	Yes
Auto Update	Number of characters	No	Yes
Auto Update	Number of characters (with spaces)	No	Yes
Auto Update	Number of hidden slides	No	No
Auto Update	Number of lines	No	Yes
Auto Update	Number of multimedia clips	No	No
Auto Update	Number of notes	No	No
Auto Update	Number of pages	No	Yes
Auto Update	Number of paragraphs	No	Yes
Auto Update	Number of slides	No	No
Auto Update	Number of words	No	Yes
Auto Update	Revision number	No	Yes
Auto Update	Security	No	No
Auto Update	Total editing time	No	Yes
Standard	Author	Yes	Yes
Standard	Category:	Yes	Yes
Standard	Comments	Yes	Yes
Standard	Company	Yes	Yes
Standard	Keywords	Yes	Yes
Standard	Manager	Yes	Yes
Standard	Subject	Yes	Yes
Standard	Template	Yes	Yes
Standard	Title	Yes	Yes

Recommendation: Manage those properties you can change to prevent the risk of adverse disclosure.

Custom Properties

With Microsoft Word you can create custom document properties to help you manage and track all kinds of information. If you link a property to a bookmark in the document, the property will be updated as the item is changed. Custom document properties can be details about a file that helps identify it, such as client-matter information, date completed, the author or operator name, the subject, or a keyword that identifies topics or other important information in the file (see Figure 5).

Figure 5 Custom Document Properties

Deleting Custom Document Properties – Word 2003

On the File menu, click Properties, and then click the Custom tab.
In the Properties list box, select the name you want to delete.
Click the Delete button.

Tip 4. When was it Printed?

The Print Date never changes (see Figure 6). This displays the last time this document was printed and does not change (unless you print it again) and cannot be changed. Duping and revising only perpetuates this property. Notice in Figure 6 that the Print date is six years older than the created date.

Document's Print date and time information
Figure 6 Statistics Document Properties

Tip 5. Safe Guard Tracked Changes still there?

There are times when you may not be aware that changes are tracked in your Word document. To be certain they are not, I recommend a two-pronged approach – Accept All Changes and use Word's Warning System.

Track Changes Safe Guard Rules

Accept All Changes
If you want to make sure there are no tracked changes in your document, Accept All Changes just in case. This will give you peace of mind.

From the Reviewing toolbar, you can select Accept All Changes in Document (see Figure 7). Whether you see the tracked changes or not, this will accept any stragglers.

Reviewing Toolbar - Accept All Changes in Document
Figure 7 Reviewing Toolbar - Accept All Changes in Document

Turn on Word's Track Changes Warning System
A nice security aspect, but a little "in your face", is Word's feature that warns you when you have tracked changes in your document whenever you print, save or email a document (see Figure 8).
To turn Word's Track Changes warning system on, follow these steps:

On the main menu bar, select Tools.
In the Tools drop-down menu, select Options.
In the Options dialog box, select the Security tab.
Click the check box Warn before printing, saving or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments (see Figure 8).

For added security, click the check box Make hidden markup visible when opening or saving. This will ensure that tracked changes are always visible.

Figure 8 Tools Options Security Tab

Tip 6. Check your Security Settings

Preventing All Author Information

To prevent all author metadata from being recorded, select Remove Personal Information under the Security tab (see Figure 9). When selected, all author names are changed to a single name, Author.

Tools Options Security Tab
Figure 9 Tools Options Security Tab

Date and Time Change Was Made

As Word tracks changes made to the document, the date and time are tracked as well (see Figure 10). To prevent date and time from being recorded with your tracked changes, select Remove Personal Information in the Security tab (see Figure 9). This setting will also remove author names from each track change.
Track Change showing the date and time
Figure 10 Track Change showing the date and time

Tip 7. Watch for External Document Links

Microsoft Word provides field codes that can be linked to other documents or through which data from one document can be inserted to and updated in another document. These links show path information and could lead to Information Disclosure.

Field Codes That Provide External Document Links

The following are Microsoft Word field codes that can reference an external document:

Hyperlink
IncludePicture
IncludeText
Link
Database

Removing Links from Field Codes

You can remove linking information from your document by editing the field codes.

To display field codes

On the Tools menu
Click Options
Click the View tab.
Click to select the Field codes check box.
Click OK.

Or

Press Alt + F9

Once the field codes are visible, you can check to see if any of them contain identifying information.

To remove the linking information from a linked image or other object, follow these steps:

Click on the field code
Press CTRL+SHIFT+F9.

The field code is now unlinked and is not longer linked to the external document.

Tip 8. Minimize Custom Identifiers

Custom Identifiers are those objects in Microsoft Word that can have a custom name. It is recommended that you restrict all custom names to generic names, instead of using firm names, firm acronyms, personal names or personal initials,

Custom Identifiers

The following is a list of Microsoft Word Objects that can have custom names:

Styles
Bookmarks
Custom Document Properties
Autotext

Tip 9. Hidden Text

In Microsoft Word documents, you can format text as hidden. This is often done for comments that you do not want to print or for instructions for the reviewer. Hidden text can contain information that you may not want to disclose, and it’s a good idea to not use hidden text or delete it out completely.

Removing Hidden Text

To remove text in a Microsoft Word document that is formatted as hidden, follow these steps:

On the Tools menu, click Options
Click the View tab
Click to select the Hidden text check box
Click OK
On the Edit menu, click Replace
Click "More" to expand the dialog box
Click in the text box next to Find what
Click the Format button
Click Font
Click to select the Hidden check box
Click OK
Click Replace All.

All the hidden text will be removed from the document.

Tip 10. Prevent Outlook from adding Metadata to your Microsoft Office Documents

Microsoft Outlook adds two custom properties to your Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint Documents (see Figure 11). This is an automatic feature unless you turn it off. Unless you want these custom properties added to your attachments, I recommend that you turn this feature off in Microsoft Outlook.

Custom Properties added to attachments
Figure 11 Custom Properties added to attachments

Turning Auto Properties Off in Microsoft Outlook

In Microsoft Outlook, select Tools
Click Options
Click on the Preferences tab
Click the E-mail Options button
Click the Advanced E-mail Options button
Click off the Add properties to attachments to enable Reply with Changes check box (see Figure 12)
Click OK
Click OK
Click OK
Microsoft Outlook will no longer add custom properties to your attachments.

Outlook adds properties to Attachments
Figure 12 Outlook adds properties to Attachments

Summary

Following these 10 tips will significantly help minimize document metadata in Microsoft Word documents. Most of the metadata in a Microsoft Word document can be controlled manually, but the onus is on individual users to "inspect" their documents and then decide what to remove…plus know how to remove it.

iScrub – Enterprise Metadata Management

To ensure accidental discloure of document metadata disclosure it is important to implement a enterprise metadata management application, such as iScrub. iScrub enables a company to set up fixed standards for metadata removal and enforce those standards. There are up to 5 different levels of scrubbing. Users simply have to select one of the levels available to them - there is no guess work or manual metadata removal and little training needed.

( "ADVERSE DISCLOSURE" means public disclosure of material non-public information relating to a Significant Transaction.)

Download the PDF version: 10 Proven Tips to Minimize Document Metadata In Microsoft Word

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About Esquire Innovations

Esquire Innovations, Inc., a leading provider of Microsoft Office integration software services and applications for the legal market, counts more than 500 law firm clients in 110 cities utilizing its applications. Esquire Innovations has been developing, supporting, and selling document creation, formatting, re-purposing, comparing, and metadata management software applications in the legal industry since 1999. The product line includes iCreate, a template and macro product, iScrub, metadata management for Microsoft Office documents, iRedline, the redlining tool for Microsoft Word and Excel, and iDocID, a powerful universal document management system integrated ID stamper.

Esquire Innovations, Inc.