How to remove the author name and edit history from a Word document

A Word document records who created it, who last saved it, how many times it has been saved, the total editing time, and, if Track Changes was ever on, who changed what and when. On a Mac, you clear the properties under File, then Properties, accept all tracked changes and delete comments from the Review tab, and turn on Remove personal information from this file on save in Word’s Security preferences before saving a fresh copy. Manatee’s Clean mode strips the author and revision metadata from a copy in one step, but the tracked changes and comments are content, and those you must resolve in Word.

Where the names live in a .docx

A .docx is a zip archive of XML files, and the personal information is in predictable places.

• docProps/core.xml holds the creator (the Author shown in Word), the last modified by name, the revision number, and the creation and last-saved dates.
• docProps/app.xml holds the total editing time in minutes, the company name from Word’s registration, and the template the document was built from. A document created from an old one inherits that original’s creation date and author, which is how a letter you wrote this morning can show a colleague’s name and a date from four years ago.
• word/document.xml holds the text, and inside it every tracked insertion and deletion carries the author name and a timestamp. So does every comment in word/comments.xml.

Any recipient can see the first two by choosing File, then Properties, in Word, and the third by turning on the Review pane. We have a post on how those can leak in track changes and comments can leak: cleaning a .docx before you send it.

Step 1: accept the tracked changes and delete the comments

This is the part that actually changes the document, and the part no metadata cleaner will do for you, because the edit history is the text.

1. Open the document in Word and click the Review tab.
2. Set the markup view to All Markup so you can see what is there.
3. Click the arrow next to Accept and choose Accept All Changes and Stop Tracking. (If some changes should be rejected, walk through them first with Next and Reject.)
4. Click the arrow next to Delete (in the Comments group) and choose Delete All Comments in Document.
5. Check that Track Changes is now off; the button on the Review tab should not be highlighted.

After this, the document contains only the final text, and the insertion and deletion records are gone. Do not skip this step on the grounds that the recipient “won’t look”: a tracked deletion is one click away in any copy of Word, and it reappears when someone turns on markup.

Step 2: clear the document properties

1. Choose File, then Properties.
2. On the Summary tab, clear the Author, Manager and Company fields, and anything in Title, Subject, Keywords and Comments that you do not want seen. The Title is frequently the original filename.
3. Look at the Statistics tab. It shows Last saved by, Revision number and Total editing time. These are read-only here; Step 3 resets them.
4. Click OK.

Step 3: have Word remove personal information on save

Word for Mac does not have the Document Inspector that Windows users know, but it has a per-document setting that does most of the same work.

1. Choose Word, then Preferences, then Security.
2. Under Privacy options, check Remove personal information from this file on save.
3. Close Preferences.
4. Choose File, then Save As, give the file a new name, and save it as a .docx.

On that save, Word blanks the author and last-saved-by fields and removes the names from any remaining comments and tracked changes, replacing them with “Author”. The setting is stored with the document, so it stays on for that file; it does not affect other documents.

Saving as a new file is deliberate. Save As writes a fresh .docx, which avoids carrying forward fragments of earlier saves that a plain Save can leave behind, and it keeps the original with its full history in case you need it.

Option: clean a copy with Manatee

If you have already resolved the tracked changes and comments, or you are dealing with a folder of documents rather than one, Manatee’s Clean mode handles the properties side without opening Word at all.

1. Drag the .docx files onto the Manatee window or its menu bar icon, or right-click in the Finder and choose Fix with Manatee from the Services menu.
2. Choose Clean.
3. Manatee strips the author and revision metadata (the creator and last-modified-by names, the revision count and related fields) and writes a cleaned copy of each document next to the original. The originals are never modified.

Everything runs on the Mac; no document is uploaded anywhere, and there is no account.

What Manatee’s Clean mode will not do, to be clear: it does not accept or reject tracked changes, does not delete comments, and does not alter any text. Those are content, and a tool that silently removed them would be dangerous. Resolve them in Word first (Step 1), then clean the copy. It also does not work on Pages documents; export to Word format from Pages first if that is where the file lives.

Verify before you send

Open the file you are about to send, not the one you edited, and check three things.

1. File, then Properties: the Summary tab’s Author should be blank, and the Statistics tab’s Last saved by should be blank or “Author”.
2. Review tab, All Markup: no tracked changes appear, and the comment count is zero.
3. Look at the header, footer and first page for names typed into the document itself. Metadata cleaning does not touch these.

If you want to see what is inside without trusting Word’s display, duplicate the file in the Finder, change the extension to .zip, expand it, and open docProps/core.xml in a text editor. The dc:creator and cp:lastModifiedBy elements should be empty.

For a PDF being sent instead of the .docx, the same questions apply to the PDF’s own metadata: see how to remove metadata from a PDF on a Mac.

Questions

Why does a brand new document already show someone else’s name as the author?

Because it was created from a template, or by duplicating an old file. The creator is set when the document is first made and is not updated on later saves; only Last saved by changes. Clear it in File, then Properties, or use Remove personal information on save.

Can I change the name Word uses for my edits and comments?

Yes. Choose Word, then Preferences, then User Information, and change the name and initials. This affects new tracked changes and comments from then on. It does not rename existing ones; the Remove personal information setting handles those.

Does exporting to PDF remove the tracked changes?

Only if they are hidden or resolved. If All Markup is showing when you export, the PDF includes the strikethroughs and balloons. Accept the changes first, and check the PDF’s own Author field afterward.

I accepted all changes, but the document still looks different from the final version I expected.

Accept All Changes applies every pending insertion and deletion, including ones you meant to reject. If that happened, close without saving (or go back to the original you kept) and walk through the changes one at a time from the Review tab.