Remove Metadata From a Word Document — Author, Company, and Revision History

Generic ‘work documents’ and ‘document scans’ pages on this site are mostly about photographed paperwork — JPEG EXIF on a phone picture of a letter. This page is the other object: a Microsoft Word .docx (or an older .doc) that still carries Office identity. The audience is different: people who will attach a Word file, not a snapshot of paper. The tool on this homepage still only rebuilds JPEG and PNG. Honesty first: you will finish Word hygiene in Word (or a sanitizer your workplace already uses). You will use MetadataWipe when the thing that leaves the device is a page image.

Scans and photographed packets are wipe metadata from a document. Workplace photo/document habits in general are clean metadata from work documents. Stay here for .docx properties: author, company, revision, and why a JPEG wiper cannot see them.

What Word actually stores

A .docx file is a ZIP archive. docProps/core.xml typically holds dc:creator, cp:lastModifiedBy, revision, created and modified timestamps. docProps/app.xml often holds Company and the application name/version. Custom properties can hold anything a template author added. That is how a résumé still says ‘Author: intern-laptop’ when you thought you deleted your name from the title page. It is also how a vendor template still says another law firm’s company name in Properties.

Track Changes, comments, hidden text, and previous-author ink are not the same XML nodes, but they travel in the same zip. Recipients who turn on All Markup see your bargaining history. Inspect Document in Word is built to surface many of these. Microsoft documents that Inspector; this page does not invent extra hidden stores. If your org uses a ‘Remove personal information on save’ policy, that is a Word setting — enable it, then still Inspect before a sensitive send.

Embedded images inside Word are another fork. A camera photo dropped into a letter can still carry EXIF inside the package. Extracting that image and opening it here is the MetadataWipe job. The .docx wrapper’s author field is not that image’s GPS, and wiping the image export does not rewrite core.xml.

What MetadataWipe can and cannot do

Can: rebuild a JPEG or PNG you export or photograph so typical EXIF/IPTC/XMP are not copied into the download. Cannot: open .docx, rewrite core.xml, accept revisions, or delete comments. If you only have a Word file and you will send Word, this tab is the wrong tool. If you will send a PNG of page 1, wipe that PNG here after you are sure the pixels are what you meant to show (redact visible secrets in an editor first if needed — this tool does not black-box text).

How to handle a Word file honestly

1. In Word: accept or reject tracked changes, delete comments you must not send, then File → Info → Inspect Document (wording varies by version). Remove author and other properties you do not need. Save a copy named for sending.
2. If policy requires PDF: export PDF, then inspect PDF properties in a PDF tool. Do not assume Word Inspector cleaned the PDF Info dictionary.
3. If you will send page photos: export or photograph JPEG/PNG, open the MetadataWipe panel, strip tags, re-open the download, attach that file.
4. Do not send the .docx plus the wiped PNG of the same letter ‘for convenience.’ The .docx still has whatever you failed to inspect.

Scenarios

A freelance contract template last edited by a previous contractor. lastModifiedBy is their name. Inspect before the client sees Properties.

A school permission form filled in Word, photographed ‘because the portal wants an image.’ Inspect the .docx if you also attach it. Wipe the JPEG if the portal gets a picture. Two containers.

A résumé exported from Word that still lists your old employer in Company. That is app.xml / template cruft. Inspector. MetadataWipe will not see it in a .docx you cannot drop here.

A letter with a product photo dragged from Camera. Extract or export that image, wipe GPS here, put the cleaned image back in the document, then inspect the Word properties too.

Mistakes

Dropping resume.docx on this page and assuming a silent success. Unsupported type. The file never opened.

Printing to paper, photographing, wiping EXIF, and thinking Track Changes died. They died only if they were not in the photo. The .docx still has them if you also send it.

Confusing this with PDF Author. Different dictionary. Use a PDF sanitizer for PDF. Use Word for Word. Use this tool for JPEG/PNG.

Scan-oriented document help: wipe metadata from a document. Broader workplace habits: clean metadata from work documents.

Related guides

See also:

• Wipe metadata from a document
• Clean metadata from work documents