Microsoft Word documents (.docx) are standard in business, legal, and academic communication. They are also notorious for harboring invisible tracking data. A routine project proposal or resume can reveal who originally drafted the text, their company name, how many minutes were spent editing, and internal file server paths. If you need to send a clean file to a client or counterparty, here is how to check and remove author name and edit history from Word documents.

How to Use Word's Built-in Document Inspector

Microsoft Office includes a native tool called the Document Inspector designed to scrub personal data before distribution:
  1. Open your document in Microsoft Word on Windows or macOS.
  2. Click the File tab in the top-left corner and select Info.
  3. Click the Check for Issues box and select Inspect Document.
  4. In the Document Inspector dialog box, check all relevant categories, especially Comments, Revisions, and Versions and Document Properties and Personal Information.
  5. Click Inspect. Word will review the file and display exclamation marks next to categories containing hidden data.
  6. Click Remove All next to each flagged category, then save the cleaned document under a new name.
Detailed steps and warnings can be reviewed on Microsoft Support's Document Inspector guide.

What Word's Document Inspector Misses: The RSID Problem

While the Document Inspector removes high-level properties like the Author field and custom document variables, it leaves deeper forensic markers intact. The most significant of these is the Revision Session ID (RSID) system.
Word documents are actually zipped archives of XML files. Every time an author edits a paragraph or modifies formatting, Word generates a random hexadecimal code called an RSID (such as w:rsidR="00A1B2C3") and tags that specific XML node. Even after you use "Accept All Changes", these RSID tags remain in the underlying XML structure.
A forensic analyst or opposing legal team can extract the document's XML, cluster text by matching RSID tags, and demonstrate exactly which paragraphs were written in the same session, proving that multiple unnamed contributors collaborated on the draft. Document Inspector also often overlooks hardware printer profiles stored under printerSettings/, which can expose internal corporate server paths like \\PRINTSERVER\Legal_Floor2.

Hidden Comments and Tracked Changes Residue

Another frequent pitfall involves reviewer comments. Simply switching the Word display view from "All Markup" to "No Markup" does not delete comments or tracked deletions. The text remains fully readable inside the document archive. If an external party opens the file, they can switch the view back and read private internal notes.
If you are converting your document to PDF before sending it out, read our companion guide on what metadata is hidden in a PDF to make sure your export does not re-introduce author tags. For legal and corporate compliance considerations, explore whether document metadata creates a GDPR compliance risk.