What metadata is and why it matters
Metadata is information about your document that Word stores automatically — things like who created it, when it was last edited, how many times it has been saved, and sometimes comments or tracked changes you thought you deleted. This hidden data travels with your file when you email it, upload it, or share it. A person who receives your document can often see this information without you knowing they looked.
The risk depends on what you are sharing and with whom. If you are sending a resume to a hiring manager, metadata might reveal that you copied text from another document or edited it at 2 a.m. the night before the important date. If you are sharing a draft contract with a business partner, tracked changes you accepted but did not fully remove could expose your negotiating position. If you are submitting a document to a court or a government agency, metadata can sometimes contradict what you claim about when something was written or who wrote it.
Word does not warn you that metadata exists in your file, and most people never think to remove it. The good news is that removing it takes a few minutes and requires no special software.
Key Takeaways
- Word automatically stores the author name, creation date, edit history, and comments in every document you create, and this information is visible to anyone who opens the file.
- The Inspector tool in Word (found under File > Info > Check for Issues) finds and removes most metadata in one step.
- Tracked changes and comments must be removed separately before you use the Inspector, because Word does not always catch them automatically.
- Saving your document as a PDF or using Save As with a new filename does not remove metadata — you must use the Inspector tool or manually delete comments and changes.
- After you remove metadata, open the file in a different program or send it to someone else to verify the information is actually gone.
How to find metadata in your document
Before you remove anything, it helps to see what Word is storing. Open your document and go to File in the top left. Click Info. On the right side of the screen, you will see a panel labeled Properties. This shows the author name, creation date, and last modified date. Scroll down in this panel to see more fields — some may be blank, but any that are filled in are metadata that travels with your file.
This Properties panel shows only the basic metadata. Word also hides comments, tracked changes, and revision history that do not appear here but are still embedded in the file. To see those, you need to look at the document itself. Go to the Review tab at the top. If you see a number next to Track Changes or Comments, your document contains hidden edits or notes that need to be removed separately.
Removing metadata using the Inspector tool
The fastest way to remove most metadata is Word's built-in Inspector. Go to File, then Info, then look for a button labeled Check for Issues (it may appear as a dropdown menu). Click it and select Inspect Document.
A window will open showing categories like Document Properties, Comments, Revisions, and Versions. Next to each category, Word tells you whether it found anything. If it found metadata, you will see a button that says Remove All next to that category. Click Remove All for each category that contains data you want to remove. Then click Close and save your document.
The Inspector catches most author information, creation dates, and revision history. However, it does not always catch every comment or tracked change, especially if they were marked as resolved. For that reason, you should manually check for comments and changes before you run the Inspector.
Manually removing comments and tracked changes
Go to the Review tab at the top of Word. Look at the left side of the ribbon. If Track Changes shows a number (for example, "Track Changes 3"), your document has three unresolved changes. Click the dropdown arrow next to Track Changes and select Accept All Changes to accept every edit, or go through them one by one and click Accept or Reject for each one. Once all changes are accepted or rejected, the number will disappear.
Next, look for Comments on the Review tab. If it shows a number, click the dropdown and select Delete All Comments. This removes every comment in the document at once. If you want to keep some comments and remove only others, click each comment individually and press Delete.
After you have accepted all changes and deleted all comments, run the Inspector tool again (File > Info > Check for Issues > Inspect Document) to catch any remaining hidden metadata. Then save the document.
What the Inspector tool does and does not remove
The Inspector removes author and company names, creation and modification dates, revision history, comments, tracked changes, and hidden text. It also removes some metadata from embedded objects like charts or images.
The Inspector does not remove metadata from embedded files (such as a PDF or Excel sheet pasted into your Word document), and it does not remove all formatting history. If your document contains sensitive information in the formatting itself — for example, if you used strikethrough instead of deleting text — the Inspector will not catch that. You will need to manually delete or retype that content.
The Inspector also cannot remove metadata that has already been extracted and stored elsewhere. If someone downloaded your document before you removed the metadata, they still have a copy with all the original information. Removing metadata protects future recipients, not past ones.
Verifying that metadata is actually gone
After you remove metadata and save your document, open it again in Word and go to File > Info > Properties to double-check that the author name, dates, and other fields are now blank or show only the information you want visible. If fields still contain data, run the Inspector again.
For extra verification, email the document to yourself or a trusted person and ask them to open it and check the Properties panel. Sometimes Word displays different information depending on how the file is opened or what version of Word is being used. Seeing it through someone else's eyes confirms that the metadata is truly gone.
If you are submitting the document to a court, government agency, or other organization with strict confidentiality rules, ask them whether they have a preferred method for removing metadata or whether they use their own tools to strip it before processing. Some organizations have their own security procedures and may remove metadata themselves regardless of what you do.
When to use Save As instead of the Inspector
Saving your document with a new filename (File > Save As) does not remove metadata — it only creates a copy with a different name. The new file will still contain all the original author information, edit history, and comments. You must use the Inspector tool on the new file as well.
However, Save As is useful for a different reason: it lets you save a clean version under a new name while keeping your original working document unchanged. For example, you might save your resume as "Resume_Final_Metadata_Removed.docx" after cleaning it, while keeping the original "Resume_Working.docx" for your own records. This way, if you need to edit the document again later, you still have your full edit history in the working version.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does converting a Word document to PDF remove metadata?
No. When you save a Word document as a PDF, Word embeds the same metadata into the PDF file. You will need to remove metadata from the Word document first, then convert it to PDF. Some PDF readers have their own tools to strip metadata, but the safest approach is to clean the Word file before converting.
Can I remove metadata from a document someone else created?
Yes. Open the document, run the Inspector tool, and remove the metadata. The author name and creation date will be replaced with your name and the current date. If you need to preserve the original author information for legal or attribution reasons, do not use the Inspector — instead, document the original metadata separately before you share the file.
What if the Inspector tool does not appear in my version of Word?
Older versions of Word and Word Online have limited metadata removal tools. If you cannot find Check for Issues, try going to File > Properties and manually clearing the author and company fields. For Word Online, read the document to your computer, clean it in the desktop version of Word, and then re-upload it.
Does removing metadata affect how the document looks or functions?
No. Removing metadata changes only the hidden information stored in the file, not the text, formatting, images, or any other visible content. The document will look and work exactly the same after you remove metadata.
Should I remove metadata from every document I share?
It depends on the situation. For resumes, job applications, legal documents, and anything you are submitting to a government agency or court, removing metadata is a good practice. For casual emails to colleagues or internal drafts, it is usually unnecessary. Think about who will see the document and whether they need to know when it was created or who edited it.