MS Word Privacy

Hi Guy's:

I'm working on a word document (work in progress) which I will want to send as an email attachment.

When I save through Tools, Options, security remove private info I get a MS Word Privacy Warning saying, may contain macros, active x, XML expansion pack info, or web components. Can't remove via File Save on security tab setting remove private information on save..... or words to that effect.

As I am including copy/paste email messages and web based text from forums as needed it no doubt does have this privacy info.

Question:

How do I remove all private information in this document before sending it?

If I covert it to a pure text format and work it there and copy back to word will that work?

Please advise based on actual experience doing this, thanks.

 

~removed quote of post directly above~

Word is a bad format for sending in email, unless you want the recipient(s) to be able to edit the document.

Create PDF and send the PDF document.

 

A lot of people would be horrified if they knew what metadata was hidden in word docs, and some image files too ! So kudos to you for being aware of the dangers of revealing private/personal info.

Copy and paste from word into notepad, and make any changes in there too. Then open a NEW word doc and Copy and paste from notepad back into there. ALL metadata etc will have been lost in the first conversion, and therefore you have no worries about leaking ANY data.

You could also try something like Doc Scrubber http://www.docscrubber.com by Javacool of SpywareBlaster and MruBlaster fame ! Make sure you test it throughly everytime you use it, just to be sure. The notepad trick works everytime though.


StevieO

 

Hello,

If you really wanna go safe:

http://www.texmacs.org/tmweb/download/windows.en.html

Learn how to use LaTeX. Export to WinTeXmacs, save as PDF or PS. And then, no personal information, whatsoever will be contained therein.

P.S. I'm writing an article about how to LaTeX, will be out there in a few weeks...

Mrk

 

Wonder if there will be a new Doc Scrubber version to deal with the .docx format? As much as I dislike the new format, a new scrubbing tool would be a real nice thing to have!

 

Thanks, guys, I'm using the notepad trick since I understand it!

Mrk when you publish your white paper let us know.

 

Unless tere is a need for the recipient to edit the Word document, it is better to send out PDF.

 

Hello,
It's more of a gray paper, since the default body color of my htmls is rgb(239,239,239), hi hi hi hi. I have almost finished the LaTeX article, it just waits to be uploaded. I try to balance between different categories, so I think I'll upload it in about 3-4 weeks.
Mrk

 

You may also use google docs and share it with certain people. That should be cheap and dirty.