Lesson 27: Inspecting and Protecting Documents

Inspect a Document Click the File tab. Click Check for Issues. Select Inspect Document.

To find the Document Inspector, click on the File tab, then open the dropdown menu under the Check for Issues in the Prepare for Sharing box. Select the first option: Inspect Document. Check each element of your document you would like inspected, then click Inspect at the bottom of the box. The Document Inspector will run. Check in a file to a document library Open the library, and select the file you want to check in. Click the ellipsis (.) in the toolbar and then click Check In. Note: You can also right click the file, click Advanced or More, and then click Check In. In the Check In dialog box, you can enter a comment, such as what you changed or added.

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Introduction

Before sharing a document, you'll want to make sure it doesn't include any information you want to keep private. You may also want to discourage others from editing your file. Fortunately, Word includes several tools to help inspect and protect your document.

Optional: Download our practice document.

Watch the video below to learn more about finalizing your documents.

Document Inspector

Whenever you create or edit a document, certain personal information may be added to the file automatically—for example, information about the document's author. You can use Document Inspector to remove this type of information before sharing a document with others.

Because some changes may be permanent, it's a good idea to use Save As to create a backup copy of your document before using Document Inspector.

To use Document Inspector:

Click the File tab to go to Backstage view.
From the Info pane, click Check for Issues, then select InspectDocument from the drop-down menu.
Document Inspector will appear. Check or uncheck the boxes, depending on the content you want to review, then click Inspect. In our example, we'll leave everything selected.
The inspection results will show an exclamation mark for any categories where it found potentially sensitive data, and it will also have a Remove All button for each of these categories. Click Remove All to remove the data.
When you're done, click Close.

Protecting your document

By default, anyone with access to your document will be able to open, copy, and edit its content unless you protect it. There are several ways to protect a document, depending on your needs.

To protect your document:

Click the File tab to go to Backstage view.
From the Info pane, click the Protect Document command.
In the drop-down menu, choose the option that best suits your needs. In our example, we'll select Markas Final. Marking your document as final is a good way to discourage others from editing the file, while other options give you more control if you need it.
A dialog box will appear prompting you to save. Click OK.
Another dialog box will appear. Click OK.
The document will be marked as final. Whenever others open the file, a bar will appear at the top to discourage them from editing the document.

Marking a document as final will not actually prevent others from editing it because they can just select Edit Anyway. If you want to prevent people from editing the document, you can use the Restrict Access option instead.

Challenge!

Open our practice document. If you opened our practice document in order to follow along with the lesson, be sure to download a fresh copy by clicking the link again.
Use Document Inspector to check and remove any hidden information.
Protect the document by marking it as final.
When you're finished, the top of your page should look something like this:

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Inspect Document In Word

Summary: Before distributing Word 2007 documents, inspect them for hidden text.

As mentioned on other sites such as News.Com and the BBC, Microsoft Word documents can contain many kinds of hidden text, such as:

* Document author and company information

* Revision information, including comments meant only for the document authors

* Watermarks

Inspect Document Word 2019

Distributing documents with such information could have embarrassing, if not legal, repercussions. Yours or your company’s privacy may be violated, and in some cases, document revisions have shown contracts destined for one company that were originally written for another organization, possibly a competitor.

Thus, it is highly recommended to always remove hidden text before sending document files to anyone.

Because of this growing concern, Microsoft Word 2007 contains a wizard that can remove most, if not all, hidden text from documents.

1. Save your document first. Otherwise, Word will prompt you to do so.

As noted in this tool, some changes made cannot be undone! You may wish to save a copy of the current document first, meant only for internal use. Just make sure you distribute the copy with the hidden text removed!

2. Click the “Office” button.

3. Choose “Prepare” in the left pane of the menu.

4. In the right pane, select “Inspect Document”.

Activating Word 2007’s document inspector

Inspect Document In Ms Word

5. The “Document Inspector” dialog box will appear. Choose what types of items you want inspected (the default is to check for all items):

* Comments, Revisions, Versions, and Annotations
* Document Properties and Personal Information
* Custom XML Data
* Headers, Footers, and Watermarks
* Hidden Text

6. Click the “Inspect” document to begin the inspection process.

Inspect Document Word 365

The Document Inspector finding items that may require removal

Inspect Document In Word For Mac

7. You will be shown whether or not items were found. To remove a particular group of items, click the “Remove All” button next to the group.

Inspect Document In Word For Mac

8. When done, click “Close” to close the Document Inspector.