Microsoft Office Tip of the Week: Document Inspector

Applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint

Microsoft Office documents often contain data that should be removed before sharing. Word may have editing changes that appear when shared. Excel spreadsheets may contain hidden rows or columns of data that should not be viewed by others. PowerPoint files may have graphics or text that do not appear on the slide, but are available when the file is opened. For final proofreading before sharing a document, use the Microsoft Office Document Inspector.

NOTE: Before running the Document Inspector, save a copy of the document under a different name. Some changes made by the Document Inspector cannot be undone.

To run the document inspector:
1. Open the renamed/copy version of the Office document to inspect.
2. Click the Microsoft Office Button, point to Prepare, and then click Inspect Document.
3. In the Document Inspector dialog box, select the check boxes to choose the types of hidden content that you want to be inspected.
4. Click Inspect.
5. Review the results of the inspection in the Document Inspector dialog box.
6. Click Remove All next to the inspection results for the types of hidden content that you want to remove from your document.

The following links provide more detail on aspects of the Document Inspector for individual programs:

Word:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100744351033.aspx?pid=CH100996521033

Excel:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA100744381033.aspx?pid=CH100648291033

PowerPoint:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA100744371033.aspx?pid=CH100673541033

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